


The Thief of Hope

by Jimcloud



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: But like very eventually, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, M/M, New Dangan Ronpa V3 Spoilers, POV First Person, POV Saihara Shuichi, Phantom Thief AU, Trans Male Character, also theyre post college age if it matters, shuichi is also probably whatever neurodivergent cocktail i am bc projection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 18:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 44,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20840105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jimcloud/pseuds/Jimcloud
Summary: Shuichi doesn't aspire to much. He runs a small detective agency in a bustling metropolitan city, takes off days on occasion, and keeps his head down. Unfortunately for him, life has a bit more in store for him. His friend Kaede calls him about a case that is much more than it seems, which will lead Shuichi into a conspiracy that threatens more than just the peaceful life he knows.(main ship is Ouma/Shuichi, other ships will be tangential at best)





	1. Chapter 1

It's a quiet day at the Saihara Detective Agency.

I'm taking a break from filing paperwork, watering the plants and doing a bit of light dusting around the shop. Some classical music gently filters in from the radio in the office. Simple pleasures.

I guess you could call my life itself a bit simple. I run a small business on my own, taking care of domestic issues or finding people for those interested. It isn't the most exciting work, but I'm... well, I'm alright at it, it puts food on the table, and I... don't dislike it? There are definitely worse ways to make a living. Granted, it's not as glamorous as what-

Oh. That's the phone. Right when I'm dusting on the stepladder, of course.

I hurriedly drop down the steps, take off my cleaning apron to stick it back on the rack, and go pick up the phone. "Saihara Detective Agency, this is Shuichi, how can I help you today?"

I'm greeted by a familiar, overdramatic groan. "Shuichiiiii, everything is awfuuuul!"

This again? "Kaede, need I remind you, this is my business line, for business."

"This _is_ business!" Kaede insists in that nasally tone that's just a bit uncomfortable over the phone. Wouldn't be the first time I've heard this one from her, though.

"So did you lose another earring down the sink drain, or do you need me to find out what your latest ex is doing?" I shoot back.

"No and _no!_ Roxanne and I parted on good terms, I'll have you know. Although..." she pauses, "no, focus, Kaede! I had a _real_ job for you this time, Shuichi!"

"I'm listening," I say, not really expecting much to come of it. To other people, she might be a star on the piano with a singing voice to match, but to me she was, y'know, that, but also the friend who calls you crying at 1 A.M. because she's drunk and her girlfriend left her and she's alone at the club, again, and needs picked up, again. That friend. She keeps me on my toes, I guess.

"I can hear that, you know, your 'I don't believe you' tone, put that away!" she scolds, "this could be your big break!"

I bristle at that. I do not and have never needed a 'big break.' "What _is_ it, Kaede?"

"My latest work was _stolen_ from me! I need you to get it back!"

"What?"

What.

"I was putting the finishing touches on my latest song, I leave the room for a few minutes, come back, and all my notes are gone! Instead there's just a calling card here, saying 'Despair! The Thief of Hope has struck again!' I haven't memorized the whole thing yet, and there was a lot of important info on there! I _need_ it back!"

...Seriously? Well, this is a new one, even for Kaede. I start running through the list of things to be done in this situation. "Did you call the police?"

"They laughed me off!" Kaede huffs, "thought I was making up this Thief of Hope nonsense."

I frown. Kaede is a lot of things, but she's not the type to lie about something like this. And her work is the most important thing to her.

...Well...

"I'm not promising anything," I say, promising much, and we both know it, "but I will at least take a look around and see what I can find."

"Thank you, Shuichi! You're always there for me. I'll treat you to something nice afterwards, huh?"

I can't help but sigh. It's the typical end to these conversations. "So long as it's not Italian again."

"Hey, Italian is great!" Kaede says.

"Name the last time we didn't eat Italian when we went out."

Kaede is quiet for a good five seconds or so on the other end. "...So, uh, Chinese good with you?"

"Sure thing. See you soon," I say, hanging up the phone. As I put it back on the ringer, I slump back into my chair for a minute before I need to get ready.

What on Earth have I gotten myself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so let me go ahead and go over why I wrote this, first of all.
> 
> It's my SO and my second anniversary coming up in about, oh, an hour or so as of writing this. Some people get gifts, i guess i write fics. They're very into omasai and i regret nothing beyond how many chapters this thing is gonna be before I finish.
> 
> I'm very bad at showing it because Kaede's heart has beated for like three men across her lifespan, but she is actually bi and not lesbian in this story, just, she has a preference.
> 
> Speaking of Kaede, my direction for her character may seem a bit odd, but she always struck me at the sort of person who lives for her passion and whatever release she can find otherwise. Add in minor celebrityhood, and she's... a bit of a mess. Shuichi is probably the best thing in her life, much to his chagrin.
> 
> If Shuichi seems a bit more tired and short than usual, well... that's probably because he is, to an extent. Also he's been through over four years of knowing Kaede and at this point he has managed to cut a bit of the formality out of his conversations with her, thank god. I live for this dynamic.


	2. Chapter 2

Kaede's apartment is... how best to describe it. It's like a living being, almost. It goes through cycles. It starts out clean, and then debris and garbage piles up until the space becomes so unworkable even Kaede has to buckle down and clean. She spends a day or so fixing the place up in a frenzy, and then the cycle begins anew. It's kind of interesting to watch, from an outside perspective, but it's less interesting when you're in the place in the middle of the worst part.

The door swings open fine, at least. Wouldn't be the first time it hasn't. Takeout boxes and bags litter the floor, forming a tiny hedge of garbage around the intended walking path. It's disgusting, but I'm more or less used to seeing Kaede's place like this, so I just take a deep breath and walk inside.

The smell hits me when I close the door, garlic with just a faint undercurrent of grease. Light just barely filters through closed blinds, making the space look a bit like a dungeon. I can't help but let out a sigh as I survey the front table covered in napkins and plastic silverware. I suppose I should let this go, but I could never even begin to live like this. I'd break out in hives after thirty minutes.

"Oh! Shuichi!" Kaede calls from the other room, and I hear a few aluminum cans scatter as she scrambles out to this room. She's wearing her favorite hairclip - the music note one - an undershirt, underwear, and nothing else. I'd be flattered she considers us close enough friends to come out dressed like this, but I'm not sure she considered it at all. After all, this is Kaede's 'I'm Working' look, and there's nothing that can come between her and her music in a state like this. Except a theft, I suppose.

Right. Theft.

"So show me where it happened," I say, trying to steer my mind back in a productive direction. This place completely derails my train of thought every time. I'm supposed to be working on business!

"You don't want anything to drink first?" Kaede asks. I'm not sure why she did, since she usually only stocks soda, energy drinks and alcohol, and I don't drink any of the above. I shake my head, prompting her to add, "oh, no, I have juice this time."

Oh.

"Juice is fine, thanks," I tell her.

I pass by her into her study while she cuts into the kitchen. The mess here is a bit different from in the front area. Kaede keeps her piano absolutely pristine, which I can respect. The desk nearby is another story, with papers and cans scattered haphazardly across it. I don't even know how you'd notice something missing in the midst of all this. Well... I guess that's what the calling card was for. It stood propped up in the center of the desk. I carefully picked it up. There was a black and white checkerboard pattern covering the borders of the card, transitioning seamlessly into a message in the center.

_Kaede Akamatsu,_

_The Ballad of the Goddess now belongs to me. Despair, for the Thief of Hope has struck again!_

The card is signed with a kiss in black lipstick. There's probably no point in having the lipstick examined; nobody would be stupid enough to sign a card with an _actual_ kiss, I assume.

This does raise questions, though. Is the Ballad of the Goddess the song Kaede was working on? Strange, I didn't think she named anything so... ostentatiously. Something to ask Kaede when she gets back.

I take quick stock of the room, before she comes back to interrupt me. Small, one closet, full to bursting with music related paraphernalia. No use to a thief. Hiding unlikely. One window... unlocked? Second story. Climbing would be difficult but not impossible. Ah, and something landed hard here, crunched this styrofoam food container. Left an imprint. Bootprint? If so, it's small, smaller than my shoe, which is pretty small as is. So the one who left this is most likely either a woman or a very small man. Or just someone with incredibly small feet. Now, the desk-

"Shuichi? Hey! Juice here!" Kaede says, eyebrow raised at me.

I stand up straighter and accept it from her, taking a sip. It's orange juice... and no pulp. Good.

"You were off in your own world," Kaede comments, "what were you even looking at? The desk is over here."

"You don't wear boots, right? And you haven't had anybody who wears boots in the apartment recently?" I ask. I make a cursory glance at her feet while I'm talking. Bare, and bigger than mine anyways. Irrelevant.

Kaede stops and moves an arm onto another, which in turn reaches up to her chin. "Uh, no, I don't think so? I haven't had any guys in here lately but you, and none of the girls have worn boots? Maybe... no, no. Don't think so." She looks back at me. "What is this about, anyways?"

"Working," I explain, downing the rest of the orange juice, swallowing it with only a little struggle, a slight cough. I hand the glass back to her. "You can go now."

She raises an eyebrow at me but doesn't object. Good. Fewer distractions. Back to the desk. Calling card-

Oh! Wait! Stupid!

"Oh, Kaede, hold on a second, sorry," I say, shaking my head for a moment. Taking everything in can wait a minute. I should ask about this song while I have the opportunity. "What's this Ballad of the Goddess about?"

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Well, it's the song I asked you to get back. What else is there to say?"

I laugh a bit, awkwardly, in hopes of keeping her from the defensive. "Well, it just seemed like an unusual name for a song, coming from you, so I was wondering if there was anything else unusual about this song... something that would make someone want to steal it, for example?"

Kaede's eyes brimmed with realization. "Oh! I get you now. Yeah, actually, now that you mention it, this is a song I'm working on for Tsumugi."

...Um...

"Who?"

Kaede rolled her eyes. "Tsumugi Shirogane? We went to college together! Don't you remember her?"

Uh... no? Not in the slightest? I shook my head hesitantly.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Kaede keeps on. "Blue hair? Glasses? Adorable round eyes? Big-but-not-Miu-big boobs?" She pauses, looking at me again. "...Cosplayer?"

"Oh! Cosplayer!" I remember her now! She kept trying to find something for me to cosplay, but I didn't share any of her interests, so she kept trying to get me into her interests. Overall, a college memory I could have left behind, thinking back on it.

Kaede stares at me through half-lidded eyes. "Yeah, I should have known better than to try describing anyone to you from appearance."

I smile despite myself. "Sorry, I don't think I can quite match your appreciation for the female form."

"Damn straight," Kaede huffs, crossing her arms. "...Anyways, yeah, her. She's trying to branch her career out a bit, and reached out to ask me for help."

"Makes sense. I'll have to ask her who might be interested in seeing this disappear."

Kaede's eyes go wide. "Whoa, what? No! No no no. You can't tell her this happened! She can't know!"

That... complicates things. "You know this may be about her, right? How else am I supposed to find more about who would have stolen it?"

Kaede places her hand on my shoulder. "You're a clever man. I have nothing but faith in you. Tsumugi learns nothing of this."

"Fine." So, question Tsumugi without letting her know what I'm questioning her about. That's... not going to be easy.

"Great! So what do you want for dinner tonight?" Kaede asks, taking her hand away, "you said Chinese, right?"

"I'll take a rain check on that, Kaede. I'll still be working."

"What!?" She says half in surprise and half in contempt. "What's even going to be keeping you that busy?"

Uh. "This."

"Oh." Kaede's expression falls. "So you're, uh, not going to get me this back tonight, huh."

I shake my head.

"Yeah... I was afraid of that." She bites her thumb. "Tomorrow?"

"Probably not."

"Goddamnit."

"Alright, if that's all you had to ask, that's all I have to ask, so clear out and let me work," I make shooing motions at her.

"I'm going, I'm going." Kaede says. She pauses at the doorway, though. "And, uh... thanks, Shuichi, for helping out with this. Really. It means a lot to me."

"It's no problem, but I'm still working." I don't look up from the desk to acknowledge her.

"Alright, alright. Sheesh."

I turn my attentions back fully to the desk in front of me. There was a lot of ground to cover here, and not a lot of time. I need to get back home and make some calls as soon as possible. Scheduling an interview with Tsumugi... and also, calling him about all this business. He would probably be in bed soon, if I remember correctly.

And if anyone will know about this Thief of Hope business, he will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of Kaede being a bloody mess. This probably won't stop all through this fic im be real here.
> 
> Shuichi is just a touch particular around his surroundings. It's not usually so bad when he's on business, but since Kaede is his friend, things get a bit messier, in multiple senses. Rest in piss baby.
> 
> This boy is REAL good at hyperfixating and REAL BAD at being drawn out of it, thanks. 
> 
> Tsumugi, more like... WHOmugi am i right (I'm right)
> 
> Kaede: shuichi i want the fuck do NOT screw this up for me  
Shuichi: thanks i hate it


	3. Chapter 3

"Never heard of 'em," Rantaro's husky voice echoed through the phone.

"Damn," I let slip. I was banking on a lead from my old college friend more than I'd expected.

"What's with the sudden interest in thieves, anyways, if you don't mind me asking?" Rantaro said. He sounded a bit... concerned? Inasmuch as Rantaro showed concern, anyways. Nothing ever really seemed to faze the man.

"Something of Kaede's was stolen from her by this 'Thief of Hope' person, or someone claiming to be that, anyways," I explain, "and I'm supposed to be helping her get it back. It's fine, this person seems like a bit of an amateur anyways, especially if their name isn't out there at all. The police laughed it off when Kaede reported it."

"Yeah, they do that," Rantaro says, bitterness seeping from his voice. ...I forgot how much he's been burned before by trying to rely on the police. He's searching for his sisters even now, isn't he? And sure, he's taking in the sights while he does it, and he lets people think he just enjoys his parents' business for the perks of going overseas, but... he wouldn't keep his ear to the ground so much if he wasn't actively looking for them.

"...So how have things been for you?" I ask, realizing how long that pause in the conversation had been.

"Eh, same old same old, you know how it is." I don't know how it is in the slightest, but I choose to let him believe this is true. "Found a few leads I thought might get interesting, but they all went south real fast."

Now _that_ I'm familiar with. I went with him on an expedition once to help him search, and his work ethic really was admirable, but... that definitely wasn't the life for me.

"I'm sorry," I say, "I hope you have better luck next time."

"Me too," he says, without much emotion. He never did seem the type to believe in luck. "I should probably be going, Shuichi, it's pretty late here."

Right, I was afraid of that. Mid-afternoon here is very late... wherever Rantaro is now. I knew I'd be cutting it close as it was. Still, I got what I called about... but... there's a part of me that wants to keep him on the line anyways. It's just a stupid crush that won't die no matter how much I want it to. It wouldn't work out. We live in different worlds, and neither of us could stand it in the other's.

"Yeah, fair enough. I'll talk to you later, then." There. I did it.

"Oh, and one more thing, Shuichi."

My heart skips a beat. I hate this. "Yes?"

Rantaro is quiet for a minute, like he's trying to find the words. It makes me antsy... hard to sit still in this chair.

"You should be very careful about investigating this. I don't know what's going on, exactly, but... I've heard whispers of something coming, something big. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I don't trust this 'Thief of Hope' business not to be connected to it. I'm not gonna tell you not to look into it, just... watch yourself, alright?"

"Sure," I hear myself say, not really sure how to feel. I sort of just don't feel anything at all. I distantly hear the sound of Rantaro saying something and hanging up, but I don't really register it.

The doorbell rings. My legs get up and move towards it. No one is at the door. There's a card slipped under the door. I see the checkerboard marks covering the sides, read it, but don't really process it. I end up back in my chair, I think.

What _is_ this, really? Ultimate business? If so... I have no place here. I'm just trying to stay in my own lane.

...

...

...

It's dark in here.

I get up, flip the light switch on. It's... late. How long have I just been sitting here?

I grab some water, a little bit of food, some time away, and when I'm finally ready, I sit back down and look at the card again.

_Shuichi Saihara,_

_You are cordially invited to the White Dawn Café at noon tomorrow for information pertinent to your latest case._

_Come alone. Look sharp._

I could give it up here. I could just tell Kaede I couldn't find anything.

Listening to this card is quite possibly the most stupid thing I could do in this scenario, but it's a lead. It's something to work with. If I don't take this... my chances of solving this drop dramatically. I'm... not an Ultimate, not really. I'm just an average-class detective.

I could tell Kaede the truth, about this Thief of Hope business, about Rantaro's warning. She'd be upset, but she would understand, I think.

...

I get my stun gun and pepper spray out, put them on the table for tomorrow. If I'm going to go out there, I'm not going undefended.

As for what I'll find... that's for tomorrow's me to worry about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, THAT could have been a more helpful conversation, huh, Shuichi?
> 
> Oh, hey, this is i think the first firm mention of this, I changed Hope's Peak from a high school into a college. I wanted them to be decently into adulthood, but have their school experience still be recent enough. College was a natural fit.
> 
> Fun facts if you didn't know it, "Shuichi" is Japanese for "Useless Gay Moron," this boy cannot hold all his crushes.
> 
> If it's not clear by now, one of the things I intend to play with is Shuichi's feelings of alienation from his talent and his classmates. In a killing game, other people are counting on him, but here in "real life" it's much easier to just dump off responsibility. Shuichi's just a bit too soft for his own good, though.
> 
> slaps roof of shuichi  
this bad boy can fit so much dissociation
> 
> my SO couldn't fucking stop laughing at shuichi wielding pepper spray. PEPPER SPRAY IS A VALID WEAPON FOR SELF-DEFENSE AND SHUICHI IS TOO BABY FOR ANYTHING ELSE. FUCK OFF.


	4. Chapter 4

The White Dawn Café was established about fifteen years ago by a then-young couple who wanted their very own slice of the economic boom at the time. It's had its ups and downs since then, changed hands a couple of times, but its image as a quaint oasis in the midst of a bustling cityscape has remained unchanged.

That's all I could find on it. Nothing suspicious, really, no reason to be alarmed. And yet... I still can't be rid of the nervous knot in my chest.

Well... nothing to be gained from standing outside just looking at the place. I already made my decision.

I step through the doors. It really is a quaint place. Wood block style tables and stools looking out over the windows, with a view of the city that also let plentiful noonday light into the building. It's got a few people in the building, discussing whatever pleases them, but it's quieter than you would expect a café to be. It... really is my kind of place, actually. I could tuck into a novel here on my off day and easily stay until close. It'd be nice.

Those thoughts carry me through my order - plain black coffee - and I sit down at a windowside table. It takes me a moment of nursing my coffee before I remember that I'm on business here. My stomach knot immediately returns. Not ideal.

I do a quick scan of the people at the shop. The baristas are chatting among themselves, since no one else has come in. Nonthreatening. An older couple towards the back. Fine. A young couple paying more attention to each other than their orders. Acceptable. A man towards the back piggy backing off the Wi-fi to type up whatever on his computer. There's always one.

Then the front door of the shop opens, and a small man in a white outfit with a dark cape almost as large as him enters the shop. He marches up to the counter and orders something that takes an obnoxious amount of time to say, and then turns and leans on the counter afterwards. He's looking right at me, now, piercing purple eyes seeming familiar, almost. I can't place from where, though. The hair certainly doesn't match it... it's a big, bushy mane of white with brown roots peeking through. I sure hope this guy isn't trying to be stealthy, because he seems pretty bad at it.

I steal a glance at his shoes while I have the moment. They're not boots, but his feet _are_ small, probably smaller than mine. He... could be the culprit.

After a minute or so, the barista hands him his order, and to no one's surprise he heads right for my table. I double check the location of my pepper spray real fast, to make sure it's close to hand... yes. Alright.

He puffs his cape out so that it slides in place behind the chair before he sits down. How does this man live?

"Good afternoon, Saihara," he says, his voice more high-pitched than I'd expected. Childlike, almost, in a way. "You're a hard man to track down, you know."

What? "...No, I'm not."

There is a moment's pause before he laughs, quick and loud, drawing the heads of multiple people in the café. "You're right! You're really not!" He recovers after a moment, his face returning to something more measured. "Sorry, that was a lie."

We're not off to the best start, here.

"I don't suppose you'd be forthcoming with a name, now that we're here?" I ask.

He shakes his head, white hair going every which way. "No chance. I have an image to uphold, you understand I'm sure."

"What kind of image depends on not being known?"

His eyes flash darker, something more dangerous. I'm paralyzed for a moment. "Only the best ones," he coos, the childlike tones all but gone from his voice.

I say nothing. His expression returns to normal. After a moment of silence, he leans back in his chair so hard he almost falls out of it. The chair rights itself quickly as he adjusts his weight by gripping the table, and the chair barely wobbles as he's back to a normal sitting position. The grace with which he caught himself almost makes me think it was planned, but the moment of surprise on his face was all too genuine for that.

He takes a sip of his coffee, sticking a foam-covered tongue out afterwards. "You know, I only picked this place because of the name," he adds, apropos of nothing, "they make pretty bad coffee."

"I don't mind it," I say, taking another drink of my coffee to test it. Yeah, it seems good to me. Glancing at the foamy monstrosity the other man ordered, I feel as though I might know the issue here.

"You ordered your coffee black, Saihara. I think you've forfeited your right to an opinion, here."

Leaving this attack on my character aside... "I think we're getting off track. I assume you have a reason for calling me out here, mysterious caped individual."

He stares at me for a moment, as if appraising me. "Call me Dice. I wanted to tell you something important, you know. It's about where the bodies are going to be buried, when the killing games start."

"I'm sorry, what?" Alright, petty thievery is one thing, but murder games are quite another.

'Dice' laughs again, longer this time, "Oh, I got you good! That was a lie. I'm not involved with any killing games. Unless that's another lie."

"This is about Kaede's song she was writing," I say, feeling a bit of irritation creep into my voice.

"Right, riiiight," he says, propping his elbow up on the table and holding his chin as he stares out at the rest of the café. "Ballad of the Goddess, written for one Tsumugi Shirogane, the song she's going to use during her idol debut, a collaboration with the talented and beautiful Kaede Akamatsu to take the world by storm. The score miss Akamatsu was just putting her finishing touches on when it mysteriously vanished, replaced with a calling card from the Thief of Hope. That song?"

"Yes, that one!" I say, a bit impatient from Dice's needless monologuing.

Dice sighs in relief. "Good! I was worried we were talking about that _other_ Ballad of the Goddess."

"...What other Ballad of the Goddess?" I have to ask. I know it's probably just something to needle me, but at this point, I can't afford not to ask.

"You know, the song miss Yonaga is working on for Atua. I'm a bit surprised that her religious works are taking off at all, actually, but if she finishes hers quickly enough, she might just end up releasing it before Shirogane does. Wouldn't that be awkward!"

...Is he... "Are you getting at a motive for the theft?"

Dice shrugged, an exaggerated motion. "Who knows! Maybe it's completely unrelated. Maybe it's nothing _but_ related. Who can say?"

"You can!" I say, a bit louder than I'd intended. I glance at the rest of the café, very aware of who might be listening, and lower my voice to a whisper, leaning in a bit on the table. "You're the one who went into Kaede's house and stole her song she was working on. You would know why."

The man across from me - who insists on using Dice as his alias, for some reason - leans in in turn, until our faces are close enough our noses are almost touching. My heart races, against my will. People aren't usually this close to me.

His eyes flash again, and he whispers in turn, the breathy sounds catching my throat. "I'm flattered you think so, but no, even I don't know the reasons the Thief of Hope does what they do. I just know two things. One, check portside for the records of storage containers for Blue Transit. Two, the Thief of Hope _wants_ you on this case. For whatever reason, they're looking for you to be on their trail. I don't think you have anything to fear - not from them, at least." They pause for a moment, grinning almost from ear to ear. "Who knows what the future will bring, eh, Shuichi?"

I pull back immediately when he says my name, my cheeks flushing. Why are they flushed? Am I just embarrassed? Frustrated? It doesn't seem to deter him, though, and he laughs again, something that feels a little bit more genuine than before... unfortunately.

"If that's all you had to say, then I'm leaving. I have business to attend to." I finish off my coffee in one long, very hot gulp before standing up.

"Interviewing Tsumugi, right? That should be interesting," he smiles, seeming to know an awful lot for someone who only knows 'two things.' He stands up in turn, and reaches for something from behind him. I brace, gripping onto the pepper spray, but he surprises me in a whole other way entirely.

He's holding... roses?

"Consider this a goodwill gesture, from me to you, detective," he grins, offering a wink. "I'm in your corner, you know! You have what it takes to solve this."

If my face wasn't red before, it was now. Before I know it, the roses are in my hands and he's already gone from the café, and I'm standing here like an idiot, not sure what to do with these.

Well, no, I should definitely throw them away. I don't trust this Dice person as far as I can throw him, declarations of allyship and all.

But... this is the first time a man has ever given me flowers.

...

I suppose I do have a vase back at the office that could keep them, and if I hurry I can still make the interview with Tsumugi. I sigh, one last protest against what I've already decided on.

This case would be interesting, if nothing else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's here, he's HERE, HE'S HERE.
> 
> And admittedly, he didn't try REAL hard on his disguise, but you know what, he put a little bit of effort into it. I can respect that.
> 
> Pepper Spray 2: Return Of Pepper Spray
> 
> All joking aside though, hoooly fuck I enjoyed writing Ouma a lot more than I expected to. He's such a god damned disaster, he derailed this conversation six ways to sunday before I could finally wrangle the little shit into saying what he was supposed to so we could move on with our lives. Not that I'm complaining, it made for an interesting write, and hopefully an interesting read.
> 
> Against all odds... Shuichi is still a gay disaster. Who expected that one?


	5. Chapter 5

Now, admittedly, I didn't know what to expect going into this interview.

But even if I had, I'm sure I wouldn't have expected a giant hug right out of the gate, but... here we are. Tsumugi lifts me up into the air, pressing my chest against her. It's exceedingly uncomfortable, especially from someone I barely know.

"Shuichi!" Tsumugi calls, "I've missed you!"

...Why?

"I missed you too, Tsumugi," I say, for the sake of not making this any more awkward than it needs to be, even offering a pat or two on my "end" of this one-sided hug.

Finally, she lets me down. "Sit anywhere you like," she says, propping herself up in a large heart-shaped cushiony chair. It looks absurdly soft, to the point I've no idea how one would get up from it.

I recover for a moment from her vicegrip while I examine the room we're in. I'd thought this place seemed extravagant from the outside, but this puts it to shame. Hearts dangle from the ceiling like mobiles, they cover the moulding of the room and do absolutely nothing to offset its pink coloration. Tsumugi herself barely makes a dent in the predominant color of the decor, as her outfit is mostly pink and white lace, with a scant few teal accents to match her eyes and hair. It all seems a bit... well... excessive, though if it was working for her I suppose it wasn't my place to tell her otherwise.

With the difficult choice between a plush pink sofa, a second plush pink sofa, or a plush pink armchair across from Tsumugi's... I take the armchair. I have to say, I prefer my chairs just a touch firmer, but I suppose my comfort isn't the point here.

"Tea?" She asks, gesturing to an elaborate porcelain tea set on the table in front of us. This all looks very expensive, very delicate, and very someone else's, but I nod anyways. She pours some into the cup in front of me, and I take a sip. It's cloyingly sweet. Why is it sweet? I have no idea how Kaede has survived what must presumably be multiple interactions with this woman.

I put the tea back down after drinking a little more, making a mental note to keep nursing it through the interview so a socially acceptable amount is gone by the time I leave. I make a second mental note to buy some water as soon as I'm out of here.

Tsumugi takes a long drink from her own cup. "So I'm always glad to hear from you, Shuichi, but what brings you over? You mentioned something about your work, right?"

"Yes..." I place both of my hands firmly on my lap, sitting up straighter. "I'm afraid the case in question is," I fumble over the next word, "confidential, but there has been a theft recently, and I have reason to believe it is in part related to you, so I was wondering if you have any rivals, in your entry into idolhood? Anyone who would want to see you fail?"

Tsumugi furrows her brow and holds a hand up to her mouth for a minute. "I'm... not sure about anyone who would want to see me fail." Her face clears up, and she smiles warmly. "I'm quite sure all of my fellow idols are nice people, and we all want our rivalry to be friendly, with no one working to tear each other down."

That... all sounds nice, but all of the evidence is pointing squarely against that being true. "Well, in that case... I don't suppose you could point me _towards_ those rivals? Who else is about at your level?"

"Well, this all is still a bit secret, only a few people in the business I know are going into this around when I am." Tsumugi says, offering a wink. "I guess Kaede must have spilled the beans, huh?"

"Oh, yeah, she mentioned it," I say, haltingly. This 'confidential' business isn't going to get me very far. I'd better find that song, and soon. "So who are those people?"

"Oh, they're all old college classmates! You know them!" Tsumugi waves her hand. I... am quite sure I don't know any non-Kaede classmates who would go into singing, but I gesture to Tsumugi to continue. "Angie and Himiko!"

...Dice mentioned a miss Yonaga and Atua, but I hadn't quite processed it at the time, in the midst of everything else happening. That _was_ our Angie, wasn't it? Why would she... and _Himiko?_ Himiko had never expressed an interest in singing once in her life. In fact, I vaguely recall an ill-fated karaoke event Kaede hosted where she couldn't even bring herself to get up on the stage. For a magician, she has some awful stage fright.

...But I suppose I'm letting my paranoia get a bit ahead of me. Tsumugi has no reason to lie here.

"Alright, thank you for telling me," I say, making myself take another drink of this tea Tsumugi left out for me. It has not gotten better with time. "One other thing... would you happen to know anything about a Thief of Hope?"

Tsumugi takes a long pause, longer than her one at the beginning. She 'hmm's, pours herself another cup of tea (how did she finish the first one?) and takes another drink. "No... no, I don't think I do know anyone going by that title."

Well, alright.

"I don't think I have too much more to ask you, but thank you for your time, Tsumugi." I say, polishing off this tea of hers.

"Oh!" Her eyes widen a bit. "Really? Well, in that case, I don't suppose you'd let me ask something of you, detective."

I frown. "Well, my case information is still confidential, but that aside, you're welcome to."

"It's nothing like that." She stares at her tea, swirling it around a bit. "Just... you mentioned someone who might want to see me fail, and I just thought... if you meet someone like that, can you tell them... it's not too late for them to make amends, if they want to. They just have to reach out and talk."

...I feel like it might be a bit late for that, if it's come to crime, but... "If I find someone like that, I'll let them know."

Tsumugi lets out a big sigh. "Thank you, Shuichi. That's all I wanted to hear."

As I leave Tsumugi's place of business, I'm not quite sure what to think. It didn't really solve any questions I had, didn't put any fears to rest... it feels more and more like I may need to use that lifeline Dice offered. But I may just be walking into a trap. Much as I hate to admit it, I might need backup for this one. Which means asking for backup.

...I can still feel the sugar at the back of my throat. Water first, then backup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh... Tsumugi, huh.
> 
> I took a bit of inspiration from a room contained in the game for the decor here, which was really funny because both of the people I sent this to didn't realize until I mentioned it to them.
> 
> I admit this is a bit of a weird turn to make for Tsumugi, but... it'll all make sense later? Probably.


	6. Chapter 6

I can't help but feel a little aware of the lack of backup by my side as I make my way into the Blue Transit office building, but... well... as I was about to get my phone out and call for that backup, it occurred to me that I should probably have all of the investigating done first. My help isn't exactly the type of person to want to wait around while I get that done...

As for the building itself, it's... sterile. About what you'd expect from an office complex. This is a fair bit removed from the actual cargo the business transports. Well, I suppose you wouldn't want to show off that part of your work to business executives, would you?

"Welcome to Blue Transit, how may I help you?" An older woman with a short blonde hairdo asks, barely looking up from her work to acknowledge me. Makes sense. I'm not exactly her typical clientele.

"I'm a detective, looking into a recent theft. I believe the contents of that theft may be stored in one of your cargo containers, so I was hoping you could provide me with some records of the latest cargo moving in?"

She looks up at me, dead in the eye, and chews a bit on the gum in her mouth. "I can e-mail you. Fax isn't really an option with the volume of inquiries you're looking into."

Oh. Uh... "how many inquiries am I looking into?"

She doesn't blink. "About 10,000 crates from 2,000 companies in the past month, and 2,000 or so from 1,000 companies in the past week."

That was... a lot, even for me. That would take a long time to sift through. "I don't suppose you could narrow it down for me a bit?"

The woman stares at me, as if apprising whether or not I was actually worth her time. Thankfully, no one else is in the building, so she responds with a "how so?"

I pause. There are a few options here. This Dice fellow, but that doesn't give me anything to work with. Himiko? And... Angie. I don't really want to suspect her, but...

"Is there anything related to an... Angie Yonaga here?"

After confirming the spelling on that, the woman taps a few keys at an impressive speed. "No, nothing like that."

Well, that's... a relief? But also frustrating. I'm right back to square one. What did Dice want me to find here?

...Wait.

"Is there anything from a... 'White Dawn'?"

She taps a few more keys. "Yes, we have a shipment in storage for a White Dawn Industries. No current ship date. Do you want me to send you the information?"

Perfection. "Yes, please." I give her my pertinents, and she sends me the relevant information - most importantly, where to find this crate in a maze full of crates.

Now came the hard part.

I head outside and back into my car. I only had a few numbers on speed dial, and this was one of them. At this time of day... it would probably be fine. Mid-afternoon? It'd be the best time to catch both of them.

I dial the number.

"Well, if it isn't my good bro Shuichi! What's up?" comes the loud voice from the other end.

"Hey, Kaito," I say, "is Maki around?"

"Sheesh!" Kaito huffs. "You sure know how to make a guy feel like chopped liver."

"It's work related!" I find myself gesturing even though no one can see me doing it, and it annoys me. "Sorry, Kaito, I'm just worried about this job, and you know Maki doesn't keep a personal phone."

"Trust me, I know," he lets a bit of a groan loose as he speaks. "You know I bought her one last Christmas? She never used it."

What? Why... "Why would you buy someone a phone for Christmas?"

"It's practical! You know?" he asks this rhetorically, but I let it hang in the air for a moment anyways. "She's a practical woman."

"Yes, but surely if she wanted a phone, she would have gotten one. I'm sure nannying isn't the best-paying job, but..."

Kaito sighs into the mic, as loudly as anything he does. "Well, that doesn't matter. If you needed help, why didn't you just ask me for protection, Shuichi?"

Uh. No, Maki knows ten different kinds of martial arts and that's not even counting the weapons she keeps for self-defense. You watch karate on television. Three years ago, maybe. Now? No.

How to put this generously, though... "Well, I wouldn't want to take you from your work, and I figured Maki could use the excuse to get out."

"I woulda taken time out for you, man!" He pauses. "I do have a lot coming up, though. I'll go get Maki Roll."

I take a moment to lean back a bit, pulling the phone further from my face. It'll probably take Maki a minute to get to the phone, anyways. Hopefully she takes to this well, because otherwise... I guess I'm going to have to go it alone.

...Or call Tenko.

...

Going it alone it is.

I decompress for a minute until I start to hear some static on the other end of the phone. I put it back up to my head just in time to hear Maki's monotone "Shuichi."

"Hi there, Maki," I say, never entirely sure how best to broach requests to her.

"What do you want?" she asks. ...Fair question.

"Well, you see, I have this investigation going on, and it's possible, well, that I might need help with this in case of something bad happening, you know."

There's a pause on the other end. "Do you need help or not?"

"Uh... yes."

"Then just say that. Do you want to die?" I get chills down my spine every time I hear that, which is unfortunate, since Maki says it a lot.

"N-no," I manage, "that's sort of the point of this."

"Good," she says, in a tone that seems a bit gentler. "So what do you need, anyways?"

I explain the case thus far to her, including Rantaro's warning about the Thief of Hope and the meeting I had with Dice.

"...You really are stupid, huh," is all Maki can say afterwards. I... suppose I can't completely object to that, after the day I've had.

"I'll help, though. Someone needs to keep you from killing yourself," she says, finally, and I feel like a weight's come off my chest.

"Thank you so much, Maki," I tell her, "I can talk to Kaede some about payment afterwards and we can see about-"

"I don't need your money," she snaps, and I sit up straighter just hearing it, "don't worry about it."

"...You're sure?" I ask. On the one hand, she probably needs the money, but on the other hand, I _definitely_ need the money. My uncle's old detective agency isn't a small place to live, and after they refinanced the place...

"If I wasn't sure, I wouldn't have said it."

...Yeah, that's Maki.

"Alright, can you meet me near the port as soon as possible? I can give you directions from there."

"I know what your car looks like, Shuichi, I'll manage. Be there in thirty."

...I guess that works, yeah. I agree, since there's no talking Maki out of something once she decides on it.

Maki does what Maki wants, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have ABSOLUTELY no idea if this is legal and I DON'T CARE
> 
> Ouma isn't exactly being subtle here, but if it works it works, I guess.
> 
> Ah, if it isn't my favorite straights, Maki and Kaito. Hi again you stupid kids, how's the marriage (they're not married and i don't even think they're dating they're so fucking stupid and i love them)
> 
> I DONT EVEN THINK THEYRE DATING BUT... KAITO BOUGHT HER A PHONE... AND SHUICHI SPEED DIALED HIM TO GET TO HER... big hmms everyone
> 
> Oh it's probably worth mentioning shuichi has done been through his idolizing kaito phase and he still likes kaito a lot but he's sort of fallen in terms of figures he respects by now... alas, reality
> 
> I'm looking so much forward to more Maki content next chapter. She's my favorite, shh, don't tell any of my other favorites


	7. Chapter 7

Maki got here in twenty.

She knocks on the door of my car while I'm in the middle of eating a snack, since I haven't eaten anything since breakfast today. It's just a granola bar I keep in my car for stakeouts or the like, but it still means I have to down it fast to get a move on. I'm not sure why, but that's been a theme for the past couple of days. Someday, I'm going to tell someone to wait, and it'll be the best day of my life.

Not today, though. I open the door and lock my car behind me. Maki's not exactly the kind of person to be kept waiting.

"You should really replace this clunker of yours, Shuichi," Maki introduces herself by.

With what money?

"I'm a bit attached to it, actually," I lie, "since it was my uncle's."

"Surely your uncle wouldn't want you to stall on the highway or something stupid like that."

"I-it's not _that_ bad!" It's... it's not!

...Right?

"Suit yourself. Let's get on with this."

She crosses her arms, putting emphasis on the- the _crossbow_ she brought with her!?

I stare at it for a minute, my eyes probably betraying my surprise.

"What? This is for defense." She says. I... _guess._ Damn, it's decked out, too. Where does Maki keep getting these things from?

Well, no time to look a gift horse in the mouth, I suppose. I lead us off in the direction of the storage unit.

The smell of salt air fills my lungs as we pass through a maze of crates. I know the way to the one we're heading to, they're clearly marked by number and I have a vague map, so we should get there just fine.

"This is legal, right?" Maki asks from behind me.

"Well..." I twirl a finger in the air. "I did some digging before you got here, and legally speaking, White Dawn Enterprises as a company doesn't exist, and the person who put their name down doesn't either. In order for this to be illegal, we would have to be stealing from an entity that exists."

"Is that all it takes to get away with crime these days?" Maki scoffs.

"It's not crime!" my voice breaks, to my irritation. Maki always has a way of putting me off guard. God, imagine if someone had heard her saying that...

Oh, here we are. This must be the crate we're looking for. Both because of the number matching and the white coloration. This Thief of Hope isn't very good at subtle, are they.

I take a quick look around to examine it before we go in. I was... expecting it to be locked, but it's not. The door is cracked ajar just a little bit. This is a level beyond trap, but... well, we're here now.

"Shall we?" I ask.

"After you," Maki says. I give her a look, and she adds, "so I can take care of whatever tries to go for you."

'Take care of'? ...Alright.

I prop open the door, and hesitantly step inside. There's no click, no whoosh, no trap at all, as far as I can see. Wouldn't have put it past someone bold enough to come out in _that_ getup, but I'm not complaining.

Inside of this container is... a couple of screens on either side, hooked up god knows where, and... a stool. On top of the stool is a neat stack of notes and a card propped up on top.

Before I know it, I'm already in front of them. The notes, sure enough, have "Ballad of the Goddess" on top, and they're clearly written in Kaede's scrawl. And the card...

_Congratulations to the Ultimate Detective_  
_ Shuichi Saihara!_  
_ (though it's not like it was hard)_

I... what?

Maki steps inside of the crate behind me, and just then, the screens both flicker on. A dark figure stands in front of a white and black checkered curtain.

"Well, hello there, Detective Saihara and guest," the figure says in a tone only reachable through a voice scrambler. "You've solved my little puzzle. Congratulations!"

"Your _what!?_" I shout.

"Surely you didn't think I actually _wanted_ these scraps of paper for anything?" The figure's voice crackles, from the screen and the voice changer. "You can have them back. I'm certain Kaede Akamatsu will be glad to see them."

But why??

"I'm sure you're wondering what this was about, and I'm afraid that mystery will have to wait for another day. But rest assured, Shuichi Saihara, you will hear from me again. Until then, I wish you my love, detective. Ciao!"

The televisions flicker off, leaving me with more questions than I started. What was the point of taking something just to give it right back the second someone went looking? What was the goal behind this? Why are we going to talk again? What was the point of dragging Tsumugi and Himiko and Angie into it? Why the meeting? Why did I even need to bother being worried about this?

Why me!?

"You should get that back to Kaede," Maki says, her voice softened such that it sounds not a little like concern. I don't have the energy to pursue that right now.

"Yeah," is all I can bring myself to say. I definitely should.

But...

Why?

* * *

Kaede kisses me on the cheek, making my entire face flush bright red. "Shuichi, you know if you weren't gay I would be in your arms right this second, right."

"I... don't think I could carry you," is my only argument against that.

"You'd manage just fine, I'm sure," Kaede winks, glancing down at her notes for the first time since I came in. "Yep, this is them. Oh, you're wonderful."

"I was just doing my job, don't worry about it," I insist, not wanting to get into the fact that the thief literally told me where they were hidden.

"Oh, I am _quite_ worried about it, thank you very much," Kaede purrs. She smiles at me. "So, if you give me a few minutes to make some calls, we can head out to that Chinese place you were after and celebrate properly."

It doesn't really feel like I've earned it. But...

"Sure, let's go."

I think I can manage to let go of my worries for one meal, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so, just gonna be real clear here, Shuichi's eating habits are real bad. They're just real real bad.
> 
> I have NO IDEA if this is legal and I STILL DON'T CARE
> 
> Ouma voice: cool beans shuichi you finished my five minute treasure hunt
> 
> Wow, Shuichi, not liking loose ends? How weird. What a puzzler. Didn't expect that one.


	8. Chapter 8

Everything turned out just fine.

Kaede managed to get her song finished in short order - apparently she really _was_ right on the cusp of finishing it, which isn't something you hear very often from her when she actually means it. So she got it over to Tsumugi without much problem, and even though Tsumugi had figured out what was stolen, she didn't get in trouble at all. I think she thinks it a bit endearing that Kaede immediately got a detective to find it... score one for Kaede, I suppose.

Tsumugi, for her part, made her idol debut... and she was a smash hit. She actually integrates cosplay into her performances, and switches them in the middle. Kaede took me to one of the first shows, and it seemed interesting? I'm probably not doing it much justice, it's not my thing in the slightest. She made it work, though. I wish her the best.

It's been a few days, and the Thief of Hope hasn't turned up. I suppose it was a bit hasty of me to think they would strike again that quickly. Still, though... _Are_ they that Dice character who met with me in the White Dawn Café? If not, what is their relationship? Just what are they after, and why are they determined to rope me into it? Those questions keep coming back to me, and I'm still just as clueless as I started.

As for me...

I'm here in front of the venue Angie Yonaga is playing in tonight, trying to decide if I really want answers this badly. And I do, of course I do, but some part of me wants to pretend that I'm content without the answers here. To pretend that I'm not growing obsessed with this.

But I'm not content. I need answers.

I make the call.

"Hey, Angie, I just wanted to make sure that now was a good time for us to talk before I came in," I say. May as well give her one last chance to back out of this.

"Of course! Atua has time for all petitioners, and so do I!" Angie's cheery voice sounds from the other end.

"Glad to hear it. I'll be right inside." I hang up the phone.

...Part of me was hoping for an out, but this works too, right?

...

I'm not going to find what I'm looking for here.

...

I go inside. Some security personnel ask for my identity and send me on my way, nice and simple. After just a moment's pause, I knock on the door to Angie's dressing room, and she lets me in.

It's... austere, I suppose. I don't know what I expected, exactly... I guess Tsumugi caught me too off guard last time. There's a big vanity mirror and desk with makeup, a bed, a closet with a few outfits hanging up, and a couple of seats. The essentials. There are also a few sculptures and paintings of different divine figures scattered through the space - I would be willing to bet the entire generous amount Kaede gave me for finding her music that these are all of Atua.

I move to take a seat in one of the chairs, but Angie guides me to sit on the bed instead. It's... a bit more comfortable than the chair, probably, but I have no idea why she wanted me to sit here.

Then she sits beside me.

Then she hugs me.

It's not the bear hug Tsumugi gave me, but something that she seems to be trying to make warmer and more... intimate. Her hands tenderly search my back up and down while her breasts press against my chest.

It's extremely uncomfortable.

Angie finally lets me go, and I instinctively breathe a sigh of relief as I no longer have to pretend to warmly receive this advance. Her hand finds its way to mine as it sits on the bed, though, and I realize that there is not going to be any escaping from personal contact with this one.

Why do girls do this? I never got it before, and I still don't get it now.

"Welcome, welcome! Please, make my home your home." Angie clasps a second hand over mine. It is very warm. "Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?"

It's a trick question, Shuichi. Don't ask her to give you space.

Don't ask her to give you space.

Don't ask her to give you space...

My eyes wander to her hands against my will. "I don't suppose you would mind giving me a bit more space?"

"Oh!" Her hands pop into the air and away from me. "Of course! My apologies, I am used to a more relaxed atmosphere."

You fucked it up, Shuichi.

"Thank you," I scratch the side of my face a bit, "I actually had a few questions for you, if you don't mind me asking. They're about a case I had recently."

Angie nods vigorously. "Yes, of course. You said as much over the phone, if I remember correctly. Ask away!"

"Uh, first of all... you're not familar with someone going by the term Thief of Hope, are you?"

"Hmm..." Angie places a finger to her lips, gently tossing her head from side to side. Realization dawns not long after that, though. "Ah! Yes! This is the one you helped Kaede with, yes? She called me a few days ago to tell me."

Of course she did. Did she just ring up everyone in class to gab about me?

"Right... leaving that aside, then. I don't suppose you would know anyone who would want to see Tsumugi's idol debut... fail, would you?"

Angie tosses her head about some more. "No... Atua says that everyone deserves their own chance to achieve their potential. Men are put on Earth believing the same thing."

"Got it." I was asking more about people than about scripture, but sure. "The song Kaede was working on was called the Ballad of the Goddess. Did you have a song similar to that in the works?"

Angie gasps. "I _do_ have a ballad to Atua I am working on! How did _you_ know about that, though, Shuichi, mmm? That's a secret."

Oh. That was probably a mistake. How best to answer? I suppose honesty is the best policy. "The Thief of Hope mentioned it... or someone connected to them." As soon as the words leave my mouth, I realize they need something more to them. "I feel like they were trying to blame you for the theft."

"Such wickedness... Ah well, Atua will pass judgment on this wrongdoer in the end. Did you have anything else to ask?" Angie cocks her head at me like a curious cat.

Well... there is one other thing.

"If it's not too personal a question to ask..." I take a moment to decide how best to word it, "what made you decide to go into the idol business? It didn't seem like something you were interested in before."

"Oh, of course!" Angie's eyes glimmer with excitement. "No one has asked me this before. I am very glad to answer. You see... I was quite happy with my calling from Atua, yes. I still love painting and sculpting like nothing else. But... one day I saw the light!"

...The light?

Angie nods in response to a question I didn't ask, not aloud. "The light was a message from Atua! He wanted me to learn another form of art, song, so I could bring the message of Atua to many, many more people, more than through art or sculpture. So I began diligently practicing and studying all of the arts I would need to know for this new path I found myself on, and now, here we are! All of that work over the past year is ready to bear beautiful fruit."

A year? That's dedication. I nod approvingly. "Thank you for sharing with me, Angie. I think that's everything I had to ask."

"Of course! Come visit me any time, Shuichi. I am always happy to host you." Her face beams, the very picture of serenity. "Perhaps next time we can speak of the many mercies of Atua!"

"That sounds nice," I lie. I lie a lot.

I exit the room, and the building not long after. I sigh in relief as I finally sit myself back down in my car. That... could have gone worse, but overall it was not a helpful experience. Angie talked a fair bit, but not much in that felt useful. Enlightening for my own curiosity, perhaps, but I was right after all. There wasn't much useful here.

Nothing else for it, then. I shift my car into gear and start driving. Perhaps I'll visit the White Dawn Café again after all.

It _is_ my off day, and I could sure use a real day off... or a week, after all this nonsense.

* * *

I keep quiet, lying easy on the back seats of this old hunk of junk. He sure knew how to pick 'em, huh? Maybe I should give him a car next.

...Nah. That's a bit too clingy. I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride for now, content that he's right where I want him to be, and content that he'll never find me.

_Don't forget about me, Shuichi. I'll be back before you know it._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We did it fam, the end of Arc 1. I'm probably going to be finishing most of the arcs in a format similar to this - Arc 2, at least, I know ends much the same way. There will be six. Points for guessing why that number.
> 
> Shuichi is REALLY fucked up by this whole truth thing. Maybe Arc 2 will be better for that for him!
> 
> Shuichi's saving up mental notes of every time someone touches him without his consent and when he dies he's going to ask for a quarter for each time it happens in the afterlife. He's saving up a lot.
> 
> immm not the biggest angie fan and i hope it doesnt bleed through too obvious in this text, I just feel like shuichi's character as I've written him wouldnt be big on angie as I see her. 
> 
> Hmm, wonder what that POV switch was about. Probably just some rando. Nothing to get excited about. (But yes, he absolutely is in that car while Shuichi is driving it and he absolutely does not give a fuck. I hate him)


	9. Extra 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rantaro finally comes home for a visit.
> 
> (Rantaro & Kaede & Shuichi)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! I'm gonna be doing some extras like these occasionally between arcs to give you an idea of things that are happening in the time between, since there are going to be time delays between each arc. Thieves need time to plan their next heists! I'm going to leave chapter summaries like the ones above to give you an idea of what's going on in them and who will be participating, and you can choose from there whether you want to read or skip them. None of them are plot-critical, but they will probably at least be referenced in the main body of the work.
> 
> Also, a mild content warning for alcohol below. Nobody does anything too stupid, but there is some (legal) drinking. Have fun!

"No, Shuichi, I don't believe you," Kaede says over the phone, "it's a good five months until Christmas still. I'm not allowed to believe in miracles yet."

I shoot a glance at the other person in the room, and pass the phone over to him. He starts off in a sing-songy voice, "You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I'm tellin' you why..."

"Santa Claus!" I hear Kaede shout through my poor receiver. "You're here!"

"Yeah, so bring all your cookies and milk and get over to Shuichi's place ASAP." I'm a bit surprised he says it 'ay-sap' and not 'A-S-A-P' but I decide not to press the matter at this time.

Kaede squeals something indecipherable and hangs up. Rantaro Amami passes the phone back to me with an easy underhand. I still only barely manage to catch it, never mind the fact that he's a foot away from me. He lets loose a little laugh, the kind that's warm and not mocking. My cheeks seem warm, too.

"So, not visiting family?" I ask.

"If they want me, they know how to find me." He says, with just a _hint_ of bitterness. I nod, and he nods back. What else is there to be said?

We pass the time in silence after that. He drinks some of his juice... I drink some of my water. It's the comfortable sort of silence you can share between two soft-spoken close friends. I have things I want to ask him, but there'll be time for that later. And... I don't really want this moment to end, not yet.

It does, though, a few minutes later, when I hear the door to my office slash house slam open and then shut. "Don't break anything, Kaede," I raise my voice just a bit as she thunders into the space.

Rantaro says nothing, electing simply to stand up and push his chair back in, stepping a pace or two away from the table. His move proves the wise one, as Kaede mobs him with a humongous hug as soon as she rushes into the room.

Rantaro returns the gesture and then some, lifting her a bit and pulling her legs between his as his upper body swings almost to the floor, taking her with him. The two are well within kissing distance, I am acutely aware. All he has to say for himself is a short "Milady."

Kaede narrows her eyes at him, back of her head mere inches off the ground. "Not today, you devilishly suave mastermind. Not today."

Rantaro eases Kaede back up to a standing position and lets her free. She sits down in Rantaro's seat and downs the rest of his juice, wrinkling her face. "So _that's_ the kind of party we're having, huh." Rantaro raises his eyebrows, but doesn't say anything, taking the seat next to Kaede.

"We told you Santa Claus was here," I comment, "I'm not sure why you thought we'd be serving alcohol."

Kaede points the empty cup at me like a spare finger. "Clearly you haven't been listening to the right kinds of Santa songs."

"Or you've just been listening to the wrong kinds," I shoot back. Rantaro stifles a laugh. That's a point in my favor. I get up to grab Rantaro more juice (in a new glass, _Kaede,_) but stop when I realize something. "You know... when my uncle passed, he _did_ leave me with a few vintages that I, obviously, haven't had any reason to break out. But for tonight, I'd be willing to make an exception."

"Hmmm..." Kaede put a finger up above her lip. "I'm not huge on wine, but it's way better than nothing."

"Up to you," I say, "since you're the only one who'll be drinking it anyways."

"I'll take one glass," Rantaro offers.

"And Rantaro will be taking one glass."

"Well in _that_ case, how can I say no?" Kaede grins at me.

You know, I don't drink as a matter of course - my parents loved the stuff, and it was tough to watch at times. Not like they were bad drunks, just... well never mind that.

But I do have a lot of respect for the way a bit of alcohol can nigh instantly change the mood of a get-together. Kaede and even Rantaro changed almost immediately after I poured the wine (and glasses of water, because if there's one thing I know about alcohol it's how to deal with it).

"Really, though, Rantaro, over seven different countries you visit and you can't even get your girl _one_ souvenir? I'm hurt. Devastated, even." Kaede barely manages to say the word devastated, which is the obvious sign that she's slurring for effect. She hasn't even had a full glass.

"It was a lot more than seven, and it's not like they were pleasure visits!" Rantaro protests. "I promise, if I ever go somewhere just for fun, I will get you something nice."

"Just her?" I can't help but smile as I say it.

"Okay, both of you. I can do that. I'll have you know I was top of my class in gift giving-"

"That's not a class," I say, at the same time Kaede says "_Bullshit_," and we both look at each other and laugh.

"Oh, you wound me," Rantaro shakes his glass at the both of us in turn, "this is just because you've never seen me in action. Just you wait. Someday next century, you're both gonna be _real_ impressed."

"I'll be sure to give my decaying skeleton a nice shocked look for you," Kaede reassures him, and he nods quietly.

They get into talking about the logistics of gifting something to a buried corpse, Rantaro mentions a native tribe I've never heard of and I decide that's about my cue to go make dinner and not be here.

I make dinner fairly often, but usually it's not anything too special... I cycle through a few recipes I'm familiar with, try to stick to the cost-efficient ones, you know. I'd like to say tonight would be different, but I got less advance warning than Kaede did about this visit, so all I have is the typical stuff to work with. Spaghetti and meatballs will probably be a hit, knowing Kaede, so I grab out the stuff for that and get started.

I have a couple of close shaves, since I'm working on too many things at once to get it out faster, but it all works out in the end. Four perfectly serviceable plates of spaghetti and meatballs. I leave one in the fridge for my aunt later, and take the other three out in my arms for Rantaro and Kaede.

"You need help with that?" Rantaro asks, looking me over. I must look as unsteady as I feel.

"I can get it-" Kaede starts before both of us say no. She was a glass in when I left, let alone now.

I ease my plate in front of my seat, and it jumps a bit before settling about where it's supposed to be. Down to two, I place Rantaro and Kaede's plates down with significantly more ease.

While I pass by Rantaro, I whisper "how many?" and he whispers back "three," which, could be worse, all in all.

Wait. Is that three cups or three refills? Well, it'd be awkward to stick around to ask and Kaede would get suspicious, so I just go back to my seat and make a start on my food.

"Hey, Shuichi, what the fuck happened to not wanting any more Italian," Kaede asks in a tone that I am no longer capable of deciphering. This could be either teasing or dead serious and I would be none the wiser.

"When I eat out, I want to get something I can't make at home," I frown.

Rantaro raises an eyebrow. "I woulda paid for takeout if you needed me to, man."

I wave him off. "Not at all!" It, would be nice, but that's not the point here, "both of you don't get a home-cooked meal very often, I know. I just wanted you to have a chance at that while you were able."

"Oh, well, that's," Rantaro stops, looking away. His hand goes up to his mouth. Did I hurt his feelings? "That's, real sweet, Shuichi."

Oh. I don't think I did anything wrong, but his voice... sure did just crack.

...I'll do the polite thing and not mention it.

"You should open a restaurant, Shuichi, this is real good," Kaede says, chewing away.

"Kaede, with respect, you have the least sophisticated palate of anyone I've ever met." I say, without respect.

"Yeah!" She points her fork at me, unperturbed, "which means my knowledge appeals to the masses! Greatest common denumin, denah, fuck,"

"Denominator," Rantaro helpfully adds.

"That," She points her fork back at Rantaro in turn, "Rantaro agrees, so I'm right."

"Whoa now, I never went that far," he laughs a bit as he says it.

Kaede raises an eyebrow. "So you're saying you don't like Shuichi's cooking!"

"What!?" Rantaro looks genuinely caught off-guard. "No, not at all! It's great!"

...He thinks my cooking is great?

"Q.E.D." Kaede twirls her fork in the air in a lavish victory motion. I... guess I'll take the win unchallenged for now, god.

We pass the time chatting about bygones and things that have happened since last we met - in a bit more of a solid state after Kaede gets some food in her system - until eventually Rantaro says he has to leave. He and I share a brief, personal hug between gentlemen, and he and Kaede share... whatever that mess of Kaede's flailing arms was.

"When are you leaving?" I ask.

"Oh, tomorrow, about midday," he says, "I just wanted to stop over here for the night, really."

My heart sinks a little bit hearing it confirmed, but I can't say it surprises me. "I can drive you up to the airport, then, if you want."

"Well, you don't have to," he waves his hand dismissively at me.

"I want to!"

Rantaro blinks. "Oh. Well, yeah, if you don't mind. I'll let you know where I'm staying tomorrow?"

I nod, and he flashes that soft smile of his, the one he makes when he feels like he should smile but doesn't really have it in him to.

"Alright. It's been good seeing you two, and I really mean that. Take care of yourselves." He makes a little wave before he opens and then closes the front door behind him.

I open my arms out to Kaede standing next to me, and she instantly falls into them, already crying.

"Shuichi, why does he _do_ this, who gave him the right to be this good, I just want to fuck him."

"No you don't," I say, knowing this routine well enough by now.

"No I don't," she immediately agrees, "that'd just be a one-night stand, and he deserves better than that, I just want him to _stay!_"

"We all do."

"Why won't he stay?"

"You know why."

"Well it's stupid, just, put a ring on him and make him stay or something."

"You think that would stop him?"

Kaede sniffs, chokes back a sob. "No..."

I do my best to console her, and I can pretend I don't feel the same emptiness she does for a few minutes.

I really do miss him.

* * *

"You know, you've changed," Rantaro says as I'm driving him up to the airport.

"...Really?" I ask.

"Yeah. You and Kaede both."

Well... Kaede at least was obvious enough. She never had that much self-control, I think, it's just manifested in a few new ways since last Rantaro was here with us. _Me,_ though?

"Wondering how you've changed, are we?" he asks, probably wearing that stupid smug grin of his. Well, it's more like a slight smile, but on Rantaro that definitely qualifies as a stupid smug grin.

"Maybe a little," I admit.

"You're more independent, more confident in yourself. You seem more comfortable in your own skin, too. It's a good look on you."

_RANTARO_ I am _TRYING_ not to _CRASH_ this _MOVING VEHICLE_ and you are making it _VERY DIFFICULT_ for me to do so with your unexpected praise.

"Thank you," I manage to say. God.

Thinking on it... I suppose he's right, but... it makes it all the stranger, looking back at Rantaro. For all the years we've aged... for all the changes Kaede and I have had... he hasn't changed, not a bit. He's just as affable... and just as closed off.

It's like he's trapped in time... stuck at the day his first sister vanished. It never is going to just heal itself, is it?

I'm sorry, Rantaro.

* * *

"Woof, okay," Rantaro almost trips as he gets out of the car, steadying himself on the pavement.

I quickly come over to his side and reach a hand out to steady him. "Are you alright?" He hops a bit away from it, probably on instinct.

"Fine, fine," the first word comes out clipped and short, and it sets me a bit on edge. He offers a big, fake smile when he steadies himself to try and put me at ease. "I just get carsick real bad, that's all."

"Oh, sorry, uh... I don't know if it would help any, but I have some granola in my car if you want it?" I jerk a thumb back towards the vehicle that has caused him this distress in hopes that it could be his salvation.

...Wow, that really is the most needlessly dramatic thing I've thought all day.

"I'll be fine, I just need some fresh air and a bit of time," Rantaro shoos me off. I don't think he'd accept it even if he thought it _would_ help, which is one of the most infuriating things about Rantaro Amami. I squint at him for a moment, but leave it at that.

"That reminds me, though," Rantaro says, pulling over the bag on his shoulder that is, essentially, his entire world. Setting it on the ground, he unzips one of the smaller pockets and takes a couple of wrapped boxes out. They both end up in my hands.

"Left one- wait, no, right one, your right, that's for Kaede." Rantaro points to make sure there's no mystery about this. His finger moves to the other one. "That one's for you."

"Wait, did you have something for us all night last night and you kept quiet on it?" I ask. "It would have been a better occasion to give them, I think. Kaede would have cried."

Rantaro's eyelids droop a bit. Not sure he wants to see that, actually. He recovers after a moment. "Well... just open yours."

Hm? I mean, sure.

It's... oh, wait, what? Excuse me?

This is... no. No, no, no.

This is... a first edition copy of Edgar Allen Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabbesque, like the one propped up in that antique store down by-

Wait. No. This is the _same_ book that has graced the front of that antique store for years, the one I've stared at and waxed poetic about.

The book that costs almost forty thousand goddamn dollars.

Rantaro. _FUCKING._ Amami.

I look back at him, absolutely no idea what emotion is prevailing on my face, and he just laughs nervously. "Well, it's like I said, I'd knock you off your feet just as soon as I made a visit for pleasure, not business."

"Well, consider me knocked off," I say. I don't have any other words.

"So.. see you around, huh?" Rantaro says. You're not getting away that easy, you god damned-

Oh. He wraps me up in one last hug, a bit more tender than the last one. My face is buried in his chest.

"Thank you so much for having me over, Shuichi. I can't tell you how much it means to have somewhere to come back to."

Yeah, I think I'm just going to combust now.

"Any- Any, any time, Rantaro, really," I somehow manage to stumble through. We say our goodbyes, I think, I'm still a bit stunned, and before I know it he's gone again.

And I'm still holding this forty fucking thousand dollar book. Thank god it's in a protective case, or I would be sweating bullets enough to ruin the poor thing.

Rantaro... I'll get you back for this if it's the last thing I do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rantaro and Shuichi are the founding members of the shitty parents club in this universe, so the two of them can be open about it in a way that's difficult sometimes with other people. Kaede for example is ready to punch their families at the slightest provocation. Sometimes an understanding nod is all you need!
> 
> Thinking on it while I'm rereading this part, I feel like Kaede may have dated Rantaro once in college for, like, a month. Neither of them are particularly bothered by that sort of thing, though, so they just keep on keepin' on.
> 
> Rantaro's fam rich as FUCK. That's why he's so touched when Shuichi goes to the trouble of making something for him, because people never DO things for him. He's very unused to it.
> 
> Kaede has plenty of sympathy for Rantaro's plight, let me be clear. She's just a lil tipsy and a lil sad and indulging herself in those at the moment.
> 
> YEAH SO RANTARO'S FAM RICH AS FUCK. It's probably not normal for an antique shop to just be selling a 40k book in its store window but this is fanfiction so yknow what whatever. Shuichi has absolutely no idea what to do with this because it is worth about as much money as he has earned in his entire life. Assume Kaede's gift was just as absolutely extravagant because I have no fucking idea what he got her, and boy is she mad about it.
> 
> i really love rantaro im so sorry youre not gonna show up again for like probably the next fifteen chapters my man


	10. Chapter 9

A month passes since the first Thief of Hope incident. I find myself counting the days less and less as time goes on, and for the most part, it fades into the back of my mind against the humdrum of regular work. It's all normal again.

Right up until it isn't.

I'm writing up reports for consultation later - annoying, but it's even more annoying if I have to do another case for this person and don't have this information about, and we have a fair few repeat customers. It's an average enough Wednesday for someone running a detective business.

The phone rings, I pick it up. Normal enough. "Saihara Detective Agency, this is Shuichi, how can I help you today?"

A familiar voice is on the other end. "Good day to you, Shuichi. I'm afraid I am calling you for a matter of grave importance for my interests as well as, potentially, the interests of the country."

...That went from 0 to 100 so fast, my head nearly spun. That was... "Kirumi? What is this about?"

"I am sorry, but I am afraid I cannot speak more on this matter over the phone. The issue in question is simply too sensitive."

I can't help but feel a bit of irritation at that. "Do you have anything you _can_ tell me?"

There's a long pause on the other end. "The Thief of Hope has struck again."

...

"Where am I going?"

* * *

I didn't really expect to find myself in a government office today, let alone in the actual... _governing_ part of that office, but... I guess, here we are? I'm still trying to process all of this.

I never did hear very much from Kirumi after we graduated. She's the most reactive person I've ever known in my life, and I've never been the best at engaging people. For the most part, my friends are people who reach out to me, rather than the other way around. Consequently, I had no idea what she was doing after graduation, but I sort of expected, you know... Maid work. Not government work?

But here we are!

Here we are.

Security officers scan and pat me down on my way into the building, which I think is a touch excessive, but I guess I've never run a country before. Generally I think bureaucracy is a touch excessive, which is one of the many reasons I'm never going into police work.

As I sit in front of Kirumi Tojo, I suppose that consultation work isn't quite out of the question anymore.

"Thank you for coming, Shuichi," Kirumi addresses me, nodding briefly. Her every motion is always calculated... there's never anything unnecessary. In a way, I envy it, but there's also a part of me that fears it. It's a bit unsettling.

"Sure, Kirumi. I have to ask, though... what got you into government work? You're a maid, right?" I can't help but ask, because... it's a question that needs answering! Kirumi Tojo was enrolled into our class for her work as the Ultimate Maid! And don't get me wrong, she was very good at her job, and... I honestly don't doubt she'd be capable at whatever she's doing now. The question remains, though. Why?

"I still am a maid," Kirumi says, looking a touch perturbed, as much as Kirumi ever does. "I work as a maid and advisor for the governor, and part of my duties include managing his affairs."

"So this is part of his affairs...?" I find myself more confused than ever. Why am I caught up in all this?

"...Yes." Kirumi says, finally. "Perhaps it would be more prudent to demonstrate to you the nature of the crime we are discussing."

She turns a small panel in front of her around, lights it up, and begins playing a video on it. Judging by the time stamps and the quality, it appears to be a surveillance camera, pointed at a desk with a computer on it. What's on the screen can't be seen from this angle... probably to protect information, I figure, because this looks like the office of someone important. The video plays for about thirty seconds, and nothing happens...

Wait.

"That card," I mutter, mostly to myself.

"You noticed, then. Nothing less than what I would expect from the Ultimate Detective." Kirumi says, and I feel a pinch of something uncomfortable. She rewinds the video a few seconds, and the card isn't there. She plays it again, and it appears. A standing card, right next to the desk.

"That's from the Thief of Hope, then," I surmise.

"Yes. We have already checked for fingerprints and examined the lipstick mark for DNA. Nothing came back." Kirumi reaches into a pocket and pulls the card out. Sure enough, it looks the same as the last one... for the most part.

_Kirumi Tojo,_

_Project Danganronpa now belongs to me. Despair, for the Thief of Hope has struck again!_

I spend an extra moment looking at the card before looking back up at Kirumi. "What's-"

"That's classified," Kirumi interrupts before I can even finish. "Top secret. We need you to recover the USB with this information on it, as well as find the person responsible and turn them into us or report their location. We can handle subduing them if necessary. Whatever you do, do not read the information yourself, it is a matter of national security."

I frown. Alright, so it's just Kaede, except now if I get any information about this case I can legally be hunted for sport. Not my ideal Wednesday experience. "So how do you know this is on a USB, anyways?"

"If you look at the video again..." Kirumi rewinds it, and points at a specific spot in the video, just to the side of the computer that faces away from the camera. I keep watching. A few extra black pixels show up right next to Kirumi's finger. A couple of minutes later, they disappear and the calling card appears almost in its place.

"How many times did you watch this?" I ask, looking back at her face. She looks... tired.

"It doesn't matter," Kirumi shakes her head. "The thief has targeted me by name, and it is my duty to find them and bring them to justice, for everyone's sake."

"Alright, so... show me where this theft happened, then," I tell her. She nods and gets up, motioning for me to follow. We go through several halls, up a flight of stairs, and down a few more, to a very guarded office that... is not Kirumi's.

"Why did the thief use your name if this isn't your office?" I ask as we enter the room.

"I do not know," she says, more anger slipping into her voice than I expected.

I decide it's prudent not to pry into that, and so I turn my attention instead to the space in front of me. The desk and the chairs in front of it are the preeminent features of the room, the desk packed with things a bureaucrat might need for their work, but not overly cluttered (_Kaede_). Some paintings and photographs are hanging up on the walls, and a few big windows let light into the space even in midday. I can clearly see the security camera angled on the ceiling, and behind it...

Oh. That's probably important. I walk over and inspect the vent behind the camera. It's just a little bit askew, a screw loose perhaps? Like it was put back in a hurry.

"What are you doing?" Kirumi asks, walking over to where I am.

"Vent," is my response to her as I drag a chair over and step up on top of it to investigate the vent more clearly. A screw is definitely loose. I'll get more out of it if I can pry this open, though. "Screwdriver?"

To Kirumi's credit, she says nothing and hands me a screwdriver. It only takes me a few seconds to pry the screws off and get into the vent itself. Where did she get a screwdriver? Eh, it doesn't matter.

I set the items on the chair next to my feet, but not so close that they'll fall into my feet as I put more pressure on the chair. The screws I diligently place back into their holes, just to be sure I can find them again later. I heft myself into the vent. It's very clearly not designed for someone of my size, but I just manage to squeeze my head and chest in. The vent heads further out of the building, it seems to. And... there's some sort of spike stuck further back in the vent, doesn't want to detach at all, but no immediately obvious method of attachment. Must be adhesive, strong stuff, the kind that takes a while to properly set up. There are a few threads stuck to the top of the spike still. Rope, entry and exit strategy.

"Your thief came in twice," I say, dropping back down and picking the vent up to start screwing it back in place. "First time was to case the place and find a suitable avenue of entry, is this office your governor's?"

"No," Kirumi answers.

"He just wanted someone who would have access to what he needed, then," I wince as I try and get the first screw in. The first screw is always the hardest. "He picked this one because of the placement of the security camera with the vent, set up a way to drop a rope down from the ceiling when next he came, and waited for a good time after it finished setting up for him to make his move."

"Why didn't he show up on the surveillance footage, then?"

"That's still the million dollar question," I mutter as I put in the second screw. Never mind, this one is the worst. "I have no idea. He picked the vent, most likely so no one would notice the door opening. You can see that on the camera, after all, but there's little to no notice if a screen turns on or if a vent shifts out of place. I have no idea how he put this back on once he was done, though."

"This vent has been coming loose lately. I have simply been putting it back in place until a proper repairman could diagnose the issue causing it."

That explains the screwdriver. "Don't think you need to worry about that anymore, then. That'll be your culprit, I imagine."

"Why would they call attention to their avenue of entry?" Kirumi's voice seems a bit strained, but I'm not paying that much attention to her. I'm never becoming a handyman.

"On the contrary, by calling so much attention, they were hoping you wouldn't pay it any mind. Boy cried wolf. And considering it was back on properly before I even got here, I'd say it worked. When was the repairman coming?"

"Tomorrow."

"Also explains their timing. They probably would have found this spike if they did a detailed investigation of the vent." I finish putting the last screw in place.

Stepping off the chair, I turn to face Kirumi again. She seems ashamed, though I can't really fathom why. It's not like most people go through life _expecting_ to be robbed.

"They could have taken anything..." she says, words muffled from her mouth still over her hands.

"Do you have any idea why they would have taken this specific information? Who would both know enough about this project and have a motive to take it from your database?"

Kirumi's eyes flash. "Someone very dangerous. Use caution, Shuichi."

Well, I'm not really going to get anywhere if I don't have anything to go on, but sure, I'll try and be careful.

I have Kirumi lead me to the exit. Tomorrow's my off day, but I have a sinking feeling I already know what I'll spend it doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> setup chapters are the wooooorst im gonna make a fun one next time i need setup fuck this
> 
> anyways, meet kirumi tojo, AKA cop
> 
> Sometimes Shuichi just goes through his day and shades Kaede in his thoughts. Turnabout is fair play because sometimes Kaede is going about her day and just shades Shuichi in her thoughts. It's how you know they would kill for each other without hesitation.
> 
> [shuichi voice] y'all out here runnin a reeeal shitty government building
> 
> i'm glad shuichi gets to do some investigating, but GOD do i hate making things for him to investigate, who thought it was a good idea to make crimes have to leave EVIDENCE, that people could LOOK INTO, instead of the criminal just telling you exactly what happened and why like in REAL crimes
> 
> kirumi: hey investigate this, but also, im not giving you anything to make your investigation easier


	11. Chapter 10

I'm spending my off day sipping my coffee and rereading my old, battered copy of Les Misérables. The sun is still climbing into the sky, but plenty of sunlight filters through the windows of the White Dawn Café.

I really do like this place. Shame I'm here for business, not pleasure. I haven't gotten any message from the thief, mind you, but... call it a hunch, but I feel like if I stay here, he'll end up finding me. Which is why I'm rereading this book, so I don't get too caught up in it, just a casual go. I consult my first annotations, the most recent set, which I had to make off the book, and keep a fresh piece of paper to write in my new annotations as I go. I have a new highlighter - red this time - to mark locations of interest to keep the annotations clearly marked by iteration. Simple and easy to understand.

So I pass the time in relative silence.

"Hey, so real quick, what the hell are you doing?"

I don't even get to finish volume I.

Dice is already sitting across from me when I look up. I have no idea how he managed to get that close to me without me noticing - even while I'm reading, I'm still looking up on occasion to make notes, and I've been paying attention when the door opens.

"Reading," is my simple answer as I close my book and put my notes together.

"With notes? Are you putting a book report together for class, Saihara?" Dice grins far too wide. He's mocking me.

"Analyzing things relaxes me," I tell him. I have no idea why I do, but it's done now. No taking it back.

"What a coincidence!" He raises his hands in the air. "Giving people things to analyze relaxes _me!_" He drums a hand against his chest. "It's a match made in Heaven, wouldn't you say?"

Or Hell.

I choose not to respond, cooly taking a sip of my coffee as I evaluate him. He's... mostly as he was last we met, cape and all. There are a couple of exceptions. His hair has changed, dyed black with white roots instead, this time. It's a wig. He sure is fond of his theming. The other change is a metal - silver? I can't tell - brooch of some kind on his chest in the shape of a flower, with a purple gem embedded in the center. On his otherwise monochrome attire, it's quite striking.

"So what did you want to talk about? I can't imagine what you could want to discuss with someone like _me,_ though." He bats his eyelashes at me. I hate that I tense my shoulders in response.

"My case, perhaps," I suggest. I've only been talking to him for a minute, and I'm already starting to lose my patience.

"Oh, you have a case? About a missing top secret project? Government business? Secret enough they'd kill to protect it? That kind of case?"

"Y-"

Dice folds his arms behind his head and leans back in his chair. "Wouldn't know a thing about that."

"Don't be difficult," I snap. "I already _know_ you know, there's no point in hiding anything now."

Dice wags his finger at me, smiling. "Oh, on the contrary, detective, I think there's every point in hiding anything. Lest we forget, I am employed by your erstwhile adversary, who may or may not be involved in this case."

"They were, and you know it. You're wasting time for both of us here."

This man pouts like a spoiled child. "Aww, but maybe I _wanted_ to come here and waste time with you, Saihara."

Why???

He winks back at me. "Just kidding! That was a lie. I hate your guts!"

That... hurt more than I expected to hear.

"Oh, don't make that face, it was a joke." Dice furrows his brow. "I can at least tolerate your presence."

Was I making a face? I guess I must have been.

He shrugs. "So if you really want to get down to business, then fine, let's get down to business. We can talk... if you tell me everything you know about the case so far." He puts his finger to his lips and smiles, childish tone all gone from his voice. "And don't lie to me, Saihara. If you do, I'll know."

If this man decides he wants to kill me, I'm not exactly sure pepper spray will be enough.

"Alright... so you went in multiple times before the theft was perpetrated. At least once for the purpose of casing the place, finding a good avenue for entry, and setting up what you would tie your rope to for entry and exit. You kept it simple and relatively untrackable, too. You also went in, likely multiple times, for the purpose of dislodging the vent and making it fall down, so that no one would be suspicious if the vent dislodged and fell down on the night you went in to commit your crime."

Dice nods, encouraging me to continue.

"That night it was as simple as could be. You went in, tied your rope, dislodged the vent, did something to disrupt the cameras, put in your USB, stole the data on Project Danganronpa, and left behind your calling card. And that's the case."

He smiles widely. "Almost right. I'll take it. But you've only given half of the case so far. _Why_ did the Thief of Hope steal Project Danganronpa's data? And why did they target Kirumi Tojo, who didn't even own the room and had nothing to do with the crime, as the person they were stealing from?"

"I... don't know," I admitted. "I don't know anything about Project Danganronpa. I couldn't even guess. And for the second, I only have theories."

"Well, don't leave me empty-handed," Dice coos. "Give, give, give!"

"One possibility... I didn't want to say this out loud, but, first Kaede, then Kirumi, both students in my class at Hope's Peak Academy. And you said the Thief of Hope wants me to pursue him, so... is it possible it's..." my voice falters a bit, "about me?"

"Big head on you, Saihara." Dice laughs. "I like that in a man."

"Thanks," the word comes out weird and stilted and I _really_ hate this line of conversation. "Anyways! The other possibility is that Kirumi is your intended target, either for her relation to the governor, her relation to the project, or perhaps because you specifically wanted her to react adversely to this note."

The man just shrugs in response, still smiling that smile of his. "Who can say? And not me, obviously, even though you keep saying that 'I' did these things. I just know a couple of things about this case. And I am authorized to give them to you... for a price."

"I just gave you what you wanted!" I snap again. "Was that not price enough!?"

"Oh, no no no. That was the price for us _opening discussion._ Now discussion is open! I'm very impressed with what you've done so far. You'll do even more if someone is kind enough to give you a lead on why someone would steal this Project Danganronpa from Tojo-" he seems to catch himself, raising his hand up to his mouth in a gasp. "Oh, sorry, no. From the government, of course. That was a slip of the tongue. Unless it wasn't."

"Name your price already," I glare at him.

"Let me borrow your nerdy boy book and all of the notes you have on it for a few days," he grins, "and I'll give you the place you need to look. I'll even throw in a good luck charm, free from me to you! I'll be wanting it back when I give you back the book, though."

"Why would I want a good luck charm from you?" I frown. "It could be bugged."

He shakes his head. "Nah, that's what the flowers were for."

Shuichi, you goddamned idiot.

"I promise, cross my heart and hope to Dice," he mimes a crossing motion over his heart, "this good luck charm is 100% useful and you should keep it on your person at all times. It might even come in handy! I'm just worried about you, Saihara-"

"That's a lie," I interrupt.

He laughs. "Really, though. I'm not giving this to you for no reason. Take good care of it."

"I didn't even agree to give you my book!" I protest. "That has a lot of my own personal thoughts in it."

Dice pantomimes a mouth with his hands as he leans on the table, his face a caricature of boredom. "If you're so deadset on not giving it up, I can give you my original alternative. If you really want that."

I blink, sitting up a little bit straighter. "Fine, let's hear it."

"Your old friend Rantaro stopped by not too long ago, didn't he? Tell me about him some. What's he like? What's he do for a living? What's his relationship to you?"

I give him the stupid book.

"Well isn't that perfectly cooperative of you, Saihara! How downright neighborly!"

"Shut up and give me the info," I snap at him.

"Oh, someone's _gwouchy,_ I see," Dice tsk-tsks at me. I want to punch him. "Well, no worries. You'll thank me later for this!" He grabs a pen out of his outfit along with a checker-patterned card - big surprise - and clicks the pen on, scrawling something on the paper. With a quick clack, he puts the pen back away and shoves the card my way. There's an address on it - apartments, maybe, considering there's a unit number at the end.

"This is the next place you should go," he says, pointing at the card, in case somehow I was going to miss that. "As for the good luck charm..."

With a practiced motion, Dice unpins the silver flower from his shirt and shows it my way. "You might have thought this was but a simple brooch, but a-ha! It is my handmade personal charm for luck. I wear it to all my favorite crimes. It's not _just_ pretty, though! Watch this!"

Dice holds the flower extremely close to my face, practically leaning over the table to do so, before pushing the gem in twice, quickly, with his thumb.

_click-clack!_

"See! Isn't it cool?" he practically beams at me.

"It makes... a pen sound?" I say. I'm not sure what else there is _to_ say.

"Yeah!" he smiles just like a child. I'm... moved, but only a teeny, tiny bit. I'm still mad at him. He presses the brooch into my palm, still not leaning back afterwards. "Try it, try it!"

At his insistence, I make a quick double-click of the brooch, as he did.

_click-clack!_

It presses in and then back out. It feels nice, at least, and there are worse sounds it could make. Dice practically squeals in delight.

"So was that it?" I ask him.

"Yep!" He leans back to his original sitting position. "Unless you want to negotiate something else. How about this, I'll tell you who the Thief of Hope is in exchange for a finger from your left hand. My pick."

"Absolutely not!" I say, disgusted.

"Alright, fine, sheesh," he yawns, "then I'll settle for the head of Kaede Akamatsu on a silver platter."

I leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've written for a lot of nerds in my day, but... Shuichi my dude. God.
> 
> It's Dice!!! He has a flower!! And he's an asshole!!!
> 
> not too much to say here. I love this chapter for what it is, lots of exposition and dumb boys. Maaaybe next time we can make some headway on this damn case of his.


	12. Chapter 11

The drive to this address does wonders for putting me back in a mood to work on a case, as opposed to whatever mood that Dice bastard put me in.

Egh, no thinking about him right now. Things to do.

The drive brings me to an unmarked building, or series of buildings, rather. They look a bit like apartments, but apartments are usually marked with signs, or... something like that. This place is conspicuously barren of anything like that. Still, I park my car and walk up to the front door. I think about knocking before realizing that's probably stupid, and try the door instead. It opens just fine.

The space in front of me is clean and sterile. Wooden floors, potted plants, a granite countertop with someone who looks like a secretary up front. She has short-cut brown hair and an outfit that screams "business casual". She greets me with a big smile as I walk up to her.

"Hello there! Are you a new inpatient, or here to see a resident?" the woman asks.

I frown, furrowing my brow. "I'm, uh, here to visit?" I fish Dice's card out of my pockets and present it to the woman.

"Oh, a visitor for Hoshi? I'm glad." She smiles again, in a way that feels a little fake, but at the same time, maybe that's just how she smiles. I don't particularly know her. "He hasn't had anyone over since he got out. Are you an old friend of his?"

"Uhh..." I'm not quite sure how to answer this. Do I have to be a friend to get into this place? "More of an acquaintance, I'd say."

"That's fine too!" She nods. "Go that way, take your first right, then he'll be in the fifth door on the left there," she says, pointing in one of the two predominant directions I can go from here. I nod and thank her for the help.

I can't help but feel like I've heard of someone with that last name before, though... ugh, it's gonna bug me now.

I round the corner, find the right room, and move to knock, but stop when I see the name tag on the door:

_Ryoma Hoshi_

Oh. Ryoma! It's Ryoma!? But... that doesn't make any sense! Ryoma is supposed to be in prison! He's on death row for... murders! Plural! Sure, it was the mafia, but the police don't usually just... let people off for that? Why is he _here?_

My mind racing with questions, I hesitantly knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Ryoma's unmistakably deep voice echoes from the other side of the door. Wow, yeah, that has to be him.

"Sh-Shuichi," I stumble over it. Ugh, I'm so nervous!

"Shuichi? What?" Ryoma only stops a moment before he opens the door, looking right up at me. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, seeing you," I say.

Ryoma snorts. "Fair enough. Come on in, then, have a seat."

Ryoma's room looks... sort of like a cross between a studio apartment and a hospital room. It's one bed, a table and a couple of chairs, a cabinet for storing things and a closet in the back. The cabinet is empty, there's just a single flower in a small vase on the desk, and I don't imagine the closet is in much better shape. The only defining features of the space are a litter box, two bags with cat faces on them next to it, and a food and water bowl.

I sit down in a chair, and immediately a cat springs up on my lap, rubbing its face against my shirt. I reach down and pet its thick gray fur, and it looks up at me with its green eyes and immediately starts purring. That's... yeah, that's a cat, alright.

"That's Annette," Ryoma says, sitting himself down on the bed. "She likes you well enough, I see." Almost immediately, Annette springs off my lap - ow, claws - and lands on Ryoma's bed next to him. He reaches his hand down and starts scratching her.

"Not as much as you," I absentmindedly say while glancing at my pants. Seems like she poked holes in them, but I'm not bleeding. Could be worse.

Ryoma chuckles. "Well, that's only natural." His expression hardens as he turns his head to look back at me. "So, first of all. How did you find me?"

Somehow, I feel as though 'I was given your address by a thief who wants me to find out about a top secret government project' is not the ideal answer here. That's just a hunch.

"Well, you know," I laugh a bit, "it's not so hard finding people when you're the Ultimate Detective, after all."

Ryoma's expression blanks. He grabs a candy cigarette from out of his pocket and puts it in his mouth. "Guess not."

"What I didn't find out, though, was why you're out of prison. I thought you were..." I gesture vaguely. "Well, you know."

"On death row?" Ryoma says, casually. I suppose that's the nonchalant attitude that comes with being on death row, huh.

"Yeah, that."

Ryoma nods. "Well, I was, but some bigwigs liked what I could do, offered me conditional parole. Now I just run fitness tests and junk for them. I think they think it's funny I'm the Ultimate Tennis Pro, despite my height."

"Really?" My eyes widen a bit, half natural, half exaggerated. "That's it? There has to be a catch."

"Eh." Ryoma's expression darkens. "I don't know what they're using it for, but it doesn't matter that much."

He looks like it matters a lot, actually. Maybe it's time to press.

"This isn't about Project Danganronpa, is it?"

Ryoma's eyes grow as big as dinner plates before they narrow into a deadly glare. "Why do you know about that."

The temperature in the room feels like it's dropped about three degrees.

"Answer me, Shuichi."

I swallow. "I don't know anything _about_ it! I just know that it got stolen and Kirumi sent me to get it back!"

Ryoma blinks once, twice, three times. "Stolen. It's all gone?"

"I guess?" My face scrunches up. "Kirumi wasn't real clear on that."

"But there's a chance that all of it, all of that info, it all went up in smoke. Right?" The glare in Ryoma's eye seemed to be replaced with some entirely new glint, just as fiery and terrifying, but not quite directed at me. Is he... excited?

"Well, someone still has it, but yeah, they might have deleted it from the government computers," I say.

Ryoma closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in and then out. "I need two favors from you, Shuichi. I've gotta ask someone."

I raise an eyebrow. What? "Uh, sure, go ahead."

"First, I need you to take Annette home with you. I don't know if you're a cat guy, but if not, you can find someone who is, right?" Ryoma looks at me with eyes that tell me this isn't _just_ a request.

"I... yeah, I think I can." Uh... Kaede likes cats, right? What brought this on?

"Good. Thank you very much." He sighs. "One other thing, and this is important. Go home, call Kirumi, tell her you couldn't find anything. Forget this case ever happened. Don't get involved with Project Danganronpa. Am I clear?"

I'm... not doing that. I don't care how many looks he gives me. Whatever has him so scared, whatever's making him push me away-

He's... a chill runs down my whole body. He's pushing me away and giving me his cat while he's at it. These are the actions of a man who's prepared to die. There's not any arguing that's going to stop that.

I swallow. "Crystal clear, Ryoma."

The storm in his eyes passes, and he nods. "Good. I've got a carrier in the closet. I'll round Annette right up for you."

I say nothing as Ryoma pops open the cat carrier, gives Annette a treat, and then puts her gently in the carrier. "Always make sure to give her a treat before you put her in the carrier, okay? It's positive reinforcement, makes her associate the carrier with getting the treat instead of with being cooped up and unable to move."

I nod. I can't bring myself to say much of anything to him.

"She's fine with you keeping food out, as long as it's dry food." Ryoma starts unfolding fingers on one hand, idly pointing with the other. "If you give her wet food, no more than one a day, because she'll start getting fat. She doesn't play very much, but if you give her a catnip toy she'll be all over that. You _have_ to change her litter box at least once every other day, or else she'll stop using it. You got all that, Shuichi?"

"I... I think so?" I grimace.

Ryoma looks me over. "...I'll write it down for you."

Ryoma hefts the cat and some cat paraphernalia, and I lead him out to my car. He makes a second trip, and brings the rest of his cat stuff out to my car. He packs it all in the back and makes an attempt to close the back before looking at me instead.

Oh. He's too short. Right, okay. I close the car's back door.

"Alright, Shuichi. You take care of her, okay?" He looks squarely at me.

I nod. He nods back. "Good. See you around, Shuichi," Ryoma offers a curt wave before turning around and walking away from the complex.

"Where are you going!?" I shout at him.

"Forget about it," his barely audible response comes back. Great. He knows my car, and I'm sure he'll be watching for me to follow him. Kirumi won't tell me anything. I can't contact Dice fast enough. Who would know?

Wait. Wait wait wait. I sprint back to the building, fast as my legs will take me, stopping only to walk more casually as I enter.

"Hey!" the woman up front waves at me, and I wave right back.

"Hey, so," I can't fuck this up, okay, let's do this, "Ryoma told me that he wanted me to pick him up when he got done with work, but he never did mention where he works to me. I don't suppose you have his work address in your files or anything, do you?"

"Oh! Yeah, I can give that to you, I think. It's public info, I think, since he's a government worker?" She taps her pen to her lips, as if thinking about it.

"Right, yeah, that makes sense," I agree. It's completely wrong, but it makes sense.

The woman turns behind her, leafs through some files, and pulls one out. After looking it over, she copies an address down onto a post-it note and hands it over to me. "Here you go! And thanks for looking out for him like that. I think Ryoma just needs a friend who'll do that."

Well... I can't argue with that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ryoma!! It's Ryoma!!! And he has a cat!!!
> 
> Shuichi doesn't dislike animals, exactly, but he's very much not used to them. Today is not the day he is adopting a cat, sorry friends.
> 
> So uh! Ryoma! huh! Yeah.
> 
> Shuichi does A Little Crime today. Just a small one. This is the crux of Arc 2: Shuichi Tells Some Fuckin Lies. So named for the fuckin' Lies Shuichi is tellin'. 
> 
> Things are really startin' to heat up now. Hope you excited, because the next few chapters are doozies.


	13. Chapter 12

I call Kaede real fast and drop the cat off with her at her place. She has questions, and that's fair, but I can't exactly answer them right now. Thankfully, it was only a short trip away from the direction I need to go. I push the speed limit just a little bit and make it there quicker than I anticipated.

But... I have to say, I wasn't expecting "there" to be quite what it was. It'd look almost like a nice, inviting building, if it wasn't for the barbed wire tipped fences around the sides of the lot. It was starting to get dark, and there were only a few cars parked outside - about three or four, all in all. Which was probably a good thing, considering the parking lot could hold upwards of twenty or thirty. it also meant my car stood out more, though, which made me a bit nervous.

...I park at some doctor's office across the street. I'm sitting there in my front seat, staring right at this building, not entirely sure what I was supposed to do now.

There was probably security inside, even if there were no researchers. I couldn't just waltz into that place. I don't know what Ryoma is planning, and I don't want to know. I don't want to know at all. But I have to know. I have to stop him from doing something he'll regret.

But how? What was even the point of coming out here, if you couldn't figure that much out? Some Ultimate Detective you are.

...

I breathe out. Back in. Out. Back in. I'm not going to be able to help anyone if I'm too focused on tearing myself down.

Against all odds, that stupid brooch of Dice's ends up in my hand. It makes a nice sound, after all, and you can click it, and that's... everything I need right now. I put all of my tension into the brooch.

_click-clack-click-clack-click-clack-click-clack-click-clack-click!_

Okay. I let out a big sigh, and I feel a little bit better. I take one glance into the rearview mirror up front, to catch a glimpse of how I look right now.

...Uh.

There's... no one in the front seat in the mirror.

I look down at my hands. Nothing is there. No arms, no hands, no brooch, nothing. Nothing under the steering wheel, either. I drop the brooch, hurriedly step out of the car, close the door, and look at the side view mirror while I'm standing right in front of it.

Uh... I'm there? Same as ever. I look down, and sure enough, there are my arms and legs. What... happened?

I cautiously step back inside the car and look up at the rearview mirror. There I am. I glance down at the floor where the brooch is, still pressed inward. I pick it up easy in my hands, and...

then my hand is gone. I look up at the mirror. Everything is gone.

What...

I fumble my fingers on the brooch, trying to find the gem end, and I press it.

_clack!_

All at once, everything returns back into focus.

What. The. Hell.

I give it an experimental double-press, like I did back at the café. One _click-clack_ later, and nothing happens. I frown at it, and press the gem inward one more time.

_click!_

For a moment, again, nothing happens, and I'm about to throw this stupid thing when my limbs vanish from view. It's an... an invisibility machine? Seriously? Even looking at it in action, every part of my brain screams out that this has to be fake, but... here it is. Here it is! Science goddamn fiction, straight from Dice's hands to mine.

...Dice said he took it to all of his favorite crimes. He wasn't joking about that, was he? He just... he _gave_ me the secret to how he stole those files right from under Kirumi Tojo's nose, and he didn't think anything of it.

Why? Why! _WHY!?_

I bash the back of my head into my seat's headrest, slump back into my seat, and stare idly at the building across from me.

...The probably top secret government building that I would get myself in very big trouble for if I stepped inside unprepared like a moron.

Well, that gives me why he gave it to me, but also asks the follow-up question of why he cares if I get my dumb ass arrested. Well, one question is enough to keep me going for now. I can solve the next one after I get Ryoma out of whatever it is that he's planning.

I step out of the car again, this time with a bit more direction than when last I did. Experimentally, I wave my arm in front of my face, just to make sure I'm still invisible.

...Something a bit unexpected happens. My hand is still invisible, sort of - but the light bends strangely anywhere it moves when I move it quickly. I stop, and everything looks normal. Moving it slowly doesn't have the same dramatic effect, but it does still warp the light, just a little bit. It's only noticeable if you're paying attention... I think. That would have to be good enough.

Slowly, at a pace that would keep me unseen, I cross the street (I can't begin to describe how nerve-wracking crossing a street, _slowly, while invisible_ is, but I made it, that's all that counts), and move towards the building's doors.

...Hmm. Doors. My only weakness.

Well, let's think about this logically, Shuichi. If you crack open the door and someone is on the other side, they're probably not going to think 'oh, there's someone invisible opening the door, I'd better fire wildly at it,' they'll most likely think 'oh, the door opened on its own, that's really spooky, I'd better investigate,' and from there, they would probably open the door wider, and look outside, and look things over, and give you plenty of time to enter into the building. It helps that no one in their right mind is going to believe that I even exist in this state right now. Is this how Dice feels all the time? This is too much power for that man to wield.

I crack the door open, just enough for me to look through it. The room is illuminated dimly - some lights are off, just enough for people to see by as needed. This is clearly some sort of entry area. Some benches, fake potted plants, counter for the secretary, it checks all of the boxes. No one is here at the moment, which makes me wonder why, exactly, the door was unlocked, but the options for why that is are many and I don't have the time or energy to channel in that direction right now.

I enter the room. Slowly, cautiously, and I ease the door shut but not all the way - if somebody heard the door open, I want them to think the door somehow, weirdly, got open, not that someone opened and then closed it. This invisibility garbage was all mind games, and it was starting to become obvious why Dice liked it.

I hear footsteps, and I think about sitting on a bench before realizing my ass could absolutely give me away there. I elect instead to stand nearby but out of the regular walkway, somewhere I won't become an incidental casualty.

A man comes out from one of the side hallways, diligent eyes scanning the room for threats. He's wearing some protective vest and has a hand near his sidearm but not so near that he's ready to do anything crazy with it. If I had to guess, I'd say military background from the gait, probably had to turn to government work to support a family. Not an unusual story.

I note with only a bit of dismay that I'm trying to figure out this man's life story to pass the time as he inches over to the doorway to inspect why it's open. He hesitantly takes a look around outside, determines nothing is wrong, closes the door, tries to lock it, and fails. He mutters something about it to a superior, the particulars of which evade me beyond "it's not getting fixed tonight, so keep an eye out" - so the lock was broken. I see.

The man then begins heading back in another direction, and I realize I don't really want to follow him directly, but... both of the two doors leading further into the complex appear to be keycard only.

Well, shit. Guess I'm following him directly.

He slides a keycard into the door and it opens, and I follow in lockstep with him, trying my best to keep my breathing steady and silent, and my gait as quiet as possible. I don't feel like I'm breathing again until I've let him pass me fully and I truly am alone in the room again. I really need to put this brooch somewhere besides in my hand. I'm going to sweat it right out of my grip at this rate.

I take slow strides - I hate this invisibility, as much as it's my saving grace - and examine the room I find myself in. There's nothing too exciting about this space, actually. It's an exercise room. There are some punching bags hooked up to machines, some treadmills also hooked up to machines... that sort of thing. This all sounds like what Ryoma mentioned, about having to do fitness tests and the like for the government. So that much wasn't a lie?

There's two other connected rooms, so I head the way of the closer one. It reminds me of a doctor's office room, but clearly oriented for research purposes. Lots of space for notes and whatnot, things you wouldn't want a patient to see if they had any choice in being tended to. I skim some of what's still written up on a blackboard. It mentions subject vitals and suitability by number, not name. I wonder which of these is Ryoma... assuming any of them is him. They really do seem to be researching people here, but for what purpose?

I pass into the next room. It's an operation room, and a dead end. I need to double back around, and slowly. How annoying.

There are enough rooms that they start to blend together after a while. There's a guard room (I make the smallest wave to the man minding the security cameras), some locker rooms, medical storage, equipment storage, and... a medical grade incinerator. I can't help but shudder as I pass by that one.

Past those is a ramp that leads down to what must be a basement level. I didn't even know this place _had_ a basement level. Learning all sorts of things today, I suppose. I step lightly down the ramp, careful not to travel at speed, and soon find myself in front of a giant door. It's got a huge hatch, like a vault door, seemingly left open on purpose. I can't help but shake the feeling that this is a trap, meant to catch would-be wrongdoers unawares. In this scenario, I realize with a swallow, that means me. But... how would it do that, exactly, now that I think of it. And how would they catch me, anyways? It seems blatantly ignorant to believe this is here for nothing but to catch people. But it's not keeping anything out... is it for that?

Or to keep something inside?

...I can't get my answers just by standing here. I walk through the vault doors.

The stink of bleach and specifically hydrogen peroxide threatens to overwhelm my poor nose as soon as I enter into the space. It seems like a simple enough hallway... very different to what I'm used to in this building, though. Wooden floors and salmon painted walls give the place a more residential feeling, only undercut by that _smell_ that just _won't go away._

The next room is a living room type space. It has a big, blue sofa, some paintings hang on the wall of nothing in particular, and there's an obviously fake fireplace in the scene. A fake window offers fake brightness into the living space. A few decorative-looking weapons and a gun or two hang from mounts, tying the space together.

I'm not really sure what kind of fireplace needs five fireplace pokers, but this place is weird enough I don't dismiss it out of hand.

I pass into a bathroom. There's an open medicine cabinet behind the mirror that I have to duck my head not to be hit by. There's a lot of potent stuff in there, I note. I don't check the plumbing, since I feel that a shower turning on on its own would be a little much, even for this place. Strangely enough, the smell of chemicals is less in here. Who cleans the bathroom less than the rest of the house?

It hadn't struck me while I was looking at the living room, but... the bathroom had a surveillance camera, and the living room had too. It was the one thing that didn't change from the rest of the house - sorry, government facility. Why would they need a surveillance camera in the bathroom? It didn't have a window, there was no way to escape, unless they were afraid someone in the bathroom would poison themselves on the stuff they have in here, which might be a risk. I admit I'm not yet familiar with the circumstances here.

The next room I explore is a garage of some sort. The slide-up door is obviously fake and there's no car, so I'm not quite certain what the point of a garage is, unless someone just wanted a place to show off their collection of tools. There are a number of wrenches, crowbars, screwdrivers, tools I don't even have names for. If someone ever got a car this far into this government complex, they would be set for life.

Everywhere I go, those surveillance cameras are there. It gives me the chills, even though I know they can't see me. It just feels... inherently _wrong,_ surveillance cameras being where cameras are not supposed to go.

I pass through a fake kitchen with a downright excessive collection of knives into a fake yard complete with fake shed and an overabundance of gardening tools. Whoever built this place must really like having lots of tools on hand. It's all open, it's all so, so, empty, it's all being watched, and it all leaves that bleach smell stuck up my nose like it's never going to leave.

A fake tennis court brings a bit of light to my eyes. Maybe Ryoma has seen this place? He would probably like the collection of rackets. Something in my chest stops, though, when I see the tennis balls next to them.

They're all metal. I didn't like doing it, but I made myself read the publicly released information when Ryoma killed those mafia members. They reported that he did it with his tennis racket and custom-made metal tennis balls. Tennis balls like these.

The bleach in this room feels like it's starting to choke me. Knives. Wrenches. Guns and swords. Poison. Hell, gardening secateurs if you're adventurous. The standout features of this place are the litany of things you could use to kill someone.

And it's all sterilized, isn't it. They made sure of that. I swallow another bleach-filled breath like it's lead in my throat. I have to keep moving. I don't know if I want to find the truth, but I came this far. I have to.

The next room has the only closed doors I've seen yet. There are places for name placards to hang... like offices. Or bedrooms, perhaps, like the one Ryoma stays in back at the halfway home.

I don't want to think about Ryoma sleeping in this place.

I pass through. This room seems like a dead end, and against all odds, I'm grateful for it. It's some sort of study room, with lots of books and CDs and a computer desk tucked away to the side. This is one of the few rooms without any killing implements whatsoever, not that I mind that fact. The sting of bleach is a bit less here, too. I skim some of the books, not seeing any titles I'm particularly fond of, until I find my way to the computer desk.

My blood runs cold.

Sitting right there in front of the keyboard is a USB stick, and below that, a white card with a checkerboard pattern on the outsides.

I only steal a momentary glance at the surveillance camera before I pocket the USB stick, only stopping before I grab the card to read it.

_Congratulations, Detective Saihara!_

_You've cracked my second puzzle! This one was a little bit harder, so pat yourself on the back. We're not done. Everything you're looking to find is right there on that stick. Maybe don't plug it in here, though._

_(and if you're not Detective Saihara, can you please put this back, you shouldn't read messages for other people, you fuckin' freak)_

Are you telling me that Dice...

stole something from a government facility...

and then _broke into a second government facility_ to _hide his stolen information_.

You've got to be kidding me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are! Things are really about to start heating up, hope y'all are as hyped as I am.
> 
> And now we get to the true purpose of Ouma leaving his funky charm with Shuichi! Ouma is a generous little piece of shit, huh.
> 
> Regarding the brooch: I should add that Ouma specifically made the double-click motion in the cafe to trick Shuichi into making the same harmless motion, but that also, Ouma would have found it terribly funny if that hadn't worked according to plan and Shuichi had gone invisible on the spot.
> 
> You can probably make a few guesses now as to the purpose of Project Danganronpa, but hold your horses. We'll get there soon.


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright fam so it's time to start getting into the "Graphic depictions of violence" part of this fic mentioned up top, which means it's time for content warnings. If you're not comfortable with the matters mentioned, then go to the end notes, and I'll provide a relatively light summary of the content inside of this chapter so you can follow along without having to read this mess.
> 
> cw: murder, descriptions thereof, blood, suicidal thoughts/actions, burning things(? is this smth i need to tag idk)

Now that I finally have _something_ that tells me more about this place, even if it is _really_ not what I was expecting to get from this, I should definitely be leaving. If Ryoma isn't here, I have no idea where he is, and that's even scarier. I have no idea where to find him if he didn't come here.

But that's a matter to deal with after I get out of this top secret government facility. I start making the long, slow walk back out of this bleach-soaked hellhole. I manage to make it not quite to the living room when an alarm starts blaring out of nowhere.

That can't be good. Did they find me? How did they find me?

...

Don't stress, Shuichi. You're still invisible. If you start panicking, you're only going to reveal your location. I continue slowly, cautiously, moving in the direction of the exit.

I pass the medical grade incinerator again, noting with some disdain that it makes more sense being so close to the ramp. I pass equipment storage (there's a lot of weapons in here that I didn't notice the first time), medical storage (there's a lot of cleaning agents in there after all), locker rooms, and... the guard room.

The guard room, where all of the security cameras are. The man who was watching over the cameras is gone now, even though the klaxon of that alarm hasn't died down. So nobody's watching what I do. This is all still being recorded, though, and I really don't want my face showing up on these records. I skim the cameras, to see if I can get an idea of what the security guards are after.

My breath catches in my throat. Everything feels cold.

The surveillance cameras don't have color, so I can't be completely sure that what I'm seeing is... Shuichi, that's just denial. You can't run away from this one. In the...

In the entry. Four security guards lay on the floor, some of them in pools of their own blood. Still standing over them is my former classmate, Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro.

I run. I don't know why I'm running. I can't save them. I can't save him. If I keep running, I may not even be able to save myself. But I keep running.

The keycard entry door is broken and the door is ajar. It hadn't even crossed my mind until just now that that could be a problem. The nauseating smell of blood nearly knocks me out as I approach the entry, my running turned to a much more solemn pace.

It's so much.

I knew... I knew Ryoma was a murderer, but... it's one thing to know that, and another to see it for your own eyes. To have seen the men he killed, before he killed them, and to almost see him in the act. My breaths comes out in raggedy gasps.

I can't look at them.

I have to look at them.

Bl... blunt force trauma. Doesn't explain the blood, unless the impact was great enough to shatter... bone... and tear skin... one man's skull is impacted. I can't breathe.

I have to breathe.

Ryoma.

He's standing over the bodies with some kind of container, pouring - pouring gasoline on them. I can smell it now. I gasp, and he turns to face me.

"Who's there?" He asks, and I've been found, I know I have, there's no hope, but I have to answer him.

I give the brooch a clack, and my form returns to reality. "It's," my voice is hoarse and rough, "it's me, Shuichi."

Ryoma lets out a deep sigh. "Couldn't keep your nose out of trouble, huh. Where's Annette?"

Who?

The cat. The cat. The cat feels like a whole world away, after all of this. "She's with Kaede," I tell him, "she's safe."

Ryoma nods. "1 for 2 isn't the worst track record."

50% is pretty bad!

"So what did you find?" He asks. "Was it... enlightening?"

"Nothing concrete," I admit, leaving aside the very concrete USB stick in my pocket, "but I can make a guess."

I don't really like having this conversation while Ryoma is still pouring gasoline over dead bodies.

"So what are you going to do now?" He asks. He doesn't stop what he's doing.

"I wanted to," I can't say it, I have to say it, "I wanted, to stop you from, doing something you'd regret,"

"There's no room left in me for regrets, Shuichi," he says, and I believe him.

"I got here too early," I realize.

He laughs a bit at that. "I had to take the bus."

I can't afford not to ask any longer. "What are you doing?"

Ryoma pauses, as if unsure how much to say. "You've seen this place. I'm sure you have an idea of what it's for."

"I don't know _why_-"

"Not why," he shakes his head. "I don't know why either. Why doesn't matter anymore. This place will go up in flames, and everything it worked for will go with it. That's the last thing I can do for this world."

The last thing. The last thing he can do. "The last thing?"

Ryoma stops. He puts the gasoline container down. He looks me in the eye. "You can't know what it's like. Every trace of this damn project has to be stamped off the map. Like it or not, I'm part of that. I can't..." his hands start to shake as he pulls his beanie down further over his face. "I can't deny what happened, pretend it didn't. I can't undo what's been done."

"I can't either, Ryoma," I tell him. But... there has to be something. A reason. "But what about bringing justice to the people who did that?"

Ryoma looks away from me. "I haven't known justice for a long time, kid."

...We're the same age.

"What about Annette? She'll miss you," I'm grasping at straws, and I know it, but I have to say _something._ I have to try.

"She'll be fine." Ryoma sighs. "She'll get used to Kaede and they'll be best friends. Kaede has that way with people, and animals too."

"And what about Kaede?" I say. What... should I say. What can I say. I don't know where to go with this.

I breathe deep.

"I mentioned you were Annette's owner, when I went over there," I lie. I didn't tell Kaede anything. "She missed you, asked after you. Wanted to know how you were doing."

She didn't. She would, but she didn't. I hope that will be enough.

"...Yeah, that sounds like her." Ryoma sighs. "And I'm sure half that class of busybodies of ours wants to know how I'm doing." He pulls the beanie further over his head. I can't see his eyes. "But it doesn't matter. I'm not the man I was then. And I'm no good to anyone, not anymore."

"Have you _seen_ Kaede's apartment? Do you have any idea how much she's begging for some help with that living space? I think the mess is threatening to secede from the lease."

Ryoma laughs. A long laugh, the kind I don't think I've ever heard from him. It's almost a minute before he finally stops. He takes a moment to suck in deep breaths before he finally speaks. "You're serious, aren't you."

"If I don't offer, Kaede will." I say, and that's not a lie. As much as we bicker, she's one of the kindest people I know.

His face turns back to the bodies in front of him. "This place still has to burn."

I look to the front entrance. Some twelve cartons, big cartons, of gasoline are standing there, waiting to be used. I walk over and pick one up. "Then it burns."

We talk a bit, as we work.

"Where did you get all of this?"

"Convenience stores across the city. Never more than one at a time, different shifts so different workers see you."

"How long have you been planning this?"

"Months."

I feel a chill. "Where did you even put all of it?"

"Buried it, not too far from here."

"How did you get all of it here?"

"Multiple trips."

"Is that why you took so long?"

"Any sooner and it'd still be light out."

It's almost midnight when we finally get in my car and drive away. I can't see the fire as I drive off, and I'm glad for that at least. I don't... know how to feel about anything I've seen tonight. Anything I've done. But what else could I do?

We end up at Kaede's place, late.

"You're sure she'll be fine with us coming in at this hour?" Ryoma asks. I just laugh. Even if she's not, she's earned the turnaround tenfold by now.

I knock on the door. "It's open!" Kaede's voice calls from inside. I'm not sure _why_ it's open at 1 A.M. but that's her prerogative, I suppose.

I open the door, and, uh, I think I've walked into the wrong apartment.

Everything is clean. The counters are spotless, the floor is vacuumed, there's not a trace of the takeout boxes that had littered the space, except for the three large, very full trash bags nearby the door. The space smells vaguely of lemon. Kaede is laying on the couch in her pajamas, changing the channels, Annette snug on her lap and sleeping gently.

"Threatening to secede, huh," Ryoma mutters as he follows me inside. I'm caught off guard.

Annette lazily lifts her head up from Kaede's lap, mews something loud, and jumps off, darting over to Ryoma. Kaede sits up and stretches with an exaggerated motion. Surprise is evident on her face as she spots the man behind me.

"Kaede, hey," I say before she can speak. "I brought Ryoma over, like I mentioned earlier?"

She raises her eyebrows and gives me a serious look. For just a moment, I let everything I'm feeling right now show on my face. Her expression becomes more casual instantly. "Yeah, I got you! I even cleaned up." She stands up, walking over. "Ryoma, you're Annette's owner, right? I've never met a better behaved cat in my life. She's a perfect angel."

"You would say that about any cat," I tell her, and she shoots a glare at me in turn.

"No, you're right. I got real lucky with this one," Ryoma says, a soft smile on his face.

While Ryoma's intent on his cat, Kaede and I look at each other. She gives me a very frustrated face, and I have the dignity to look ashamed as I glance away from her. She rolls her eyes and makes the smallest nod before making a phone hand sign at her ear. I give her a small nod back.

"So, what's going on with you, Ryoma? Where are you staying?" Kaede asks.

"Oh, he just got off on parole, so I think he's still trying to find a place to live," I explain. "I was thinking about those cheap apartments across-"

Kaede silences me with a look. "Don't you dare insinuate either one of us were going to make this man pay for staying anywhere right after getting back on his feet."

I, for one, would charge rent after a month of living in my house, but in my defense, Kaito has crashed at my place before.

"You can stay with me if you want, Ryoma," Kaede offers. "I only have a couch, as spare space goes, but it's a fold-out bed kind, and I can get some comforters and stuff to make it more comfortable, and you don't have to worry about food or anything, I can cover that no problem."

Ryoma chuckles. "Shuichi thought you might say that."

I shrug weakly.

"Well, I mean it! I want to be there while you need it, Ryoma. You're a good friend of ours, you know? You should have heard what Rantaro said-" Realization brightens her face as she remembers something else. "Oh, you _have_ to hear about what _Rantaro_ fucking did the other week, that rat bastard, so he's in town, right?"

I laugh a little, already knowing where this is going. I feel the same way, but... "I really should be going now, if you're good here, Ryoma."

Kaede nods. "It's past your curfew, huh?"

"I'm almost the same age as you!" I protest. "You're only older by six months! Five and a quarter, actually, that rounds down!"

Ryoma laughs. "I'll be fine here. Good night, kid."

I'm the same age as you!!!

"Good night, kid!" Kaede echoes.

I sigh and leave the building. I feel all of my tiredness come back as I get into my car, and all of the complicated emotions I've been swallowing up start crashing to the forefront of my mind. All the fear, the paranoia, the uncertainty, the anxiety, the grief.

All of it centered around the weight of that USB stick in my pocket, the stick I never mentioned to Ryoma.

My night's not over, not by a long shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content summary of the chapter:  
Shuichi starts leaving the facility he's been exploring, only for an alarm to sound while he's on his way out. When he gets to the surveillance room and finds it empty, he checks the cameras, only to discover Ryoma has killed the guards for the facility. Shuichi immediately sprints to the scene, still invisible. He finds Ryoma pouring gasoline on the bodies, and gives himself away. The two talk about the facility some, and Shuichi's reasons for coming. Ryoma wants to end the facility and himself with it. Shuichi convinces him to keep going, and lies that Kaede was worried about him in the process (she would be, but he didn't tell her about him). The two agree to burn the facility down together. Afterwards, they drive back to Kaede's house, and Shuichi manages to get Kaede to play along with his claim that he mentioned Ryoma earlier. She agrees to house him and his cat while he's still getting back on his feet. Shuichi starts to drive back home, determined to find out what was on the USB stick.
> 
> ANYWAYS. Uhhhhh i dunno how realistic this all is but it all sure did happen huh!! My best explanation for why there are only four guards guarding this place is: keycards keep most people from getting in past the entrance and they're essentially on "off season" right now so there isn't too much TO be guarding at the moment. And nobody came to help because most people probably don't have the clearance to BE here
> 
> hey shuichi thanks for being naturally inquisitive about loose ends so i can deal with all the reasons ryoma coming in like this was bullshit in one fell swoop its real kind of you


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This along with the last one really needs the content warnings here. Graphic depictions of violence, blood, all that good stuff. That said, unlike the previous chapter where the whole chapter kinda had that stuff interspersed, there's a very clear point in this one when it's obvious that stuff is going to start. My content summary for this chapter will start from that point, instead of summarizing the whole thing.

I almost drop my keys as I go to unlock my door. I'm very glad that I always lock my door when I leave, because I had no idea when I went out today that I would stay out until 2 o'clock or later in the god damn morning before finally getting home. I haven't eaten anything, I haven't drank anything but the coffee back at the café, and I'm really starting to feel it now that I have the time to decompress just a little bit.

The typical familiar sights greet me when I return home. The plants, I should water those soon, my front bookcase, Dice draping himself on the furniture, the hall to my off-

Excuse me, wait.

"Why are you here?" I ask. I don't have time for this.

"Your place has a good atmosphere for reading, Saihara," he says, idly turning a page. He doesn't even look up at me. He has my notes for Les Misérables sprawled out in front of him, along with a pen and... another piece of paper? Is he annotating too?

"So are you enjoying it...?" I can't help but ask. There is no one in my life who understands my passion. Not a soul. Even if it means I have to share it with this chucklefuck, I'm willing.

He actually looks up at that and laughs. "This is horrible, Saihara! Who in their right mind writes like this!? He spent sixty pages telling us Paris sewers stank! If brevity is the soul of wit, this guy is a vegetable."

"But you're still reading," I point out.

"I was bored." He shuts the book and shoves it and the papers my way. "I left some special notes for you!"

I don't look forward to that.

"So, you know the deal." Dice sits up and holds his hand out expectantly. "I need my good luck charm back. I'm not going to be able to do _any_ good crimes if I'm worrying about my luck, you know."

"Good crimes is an oxymoron," I point out.

"Bold words from a man with that USB, Saihara." he says, all playfulness gone from his voice. I shiver against my will.

I... grab out the invisibility brooch from a pocket and put it in his hand.

"Oh, I _was_ hoping I wouldn't have to steal that back, thank you," he grins, back to normal.

"Care to explain the whole invisibility thing to me?" I ask.

"Oh, _that!_ That's a funny story, actually," Dice lays back on the couch, closing his eyes, "you see, when I was born, I was so pretty that I outshined the Sun. My mom, she hated that, because she thought _she_ was prettier, so she cursed me to only be seen when spoken to. But I was a clever youth, and I tricked a wandering witch-"

"I meant what actually caused it, but if you ever write a book of fables I'd be happy to proofread it for you."

"I mean, it's a clicky clacky thing, what more needs said?" Dice raises an eyebrow at me.

"Where did you _get it?_" I'm already exasperated.

"The wandering witch, if you'd let me finish," he pouts.

"Fine. Sure. Witch. I don't care." I'm ready to give him that one for now, because I have more important fish to fry. I take the USB stick I got out. "You don't have anything to say about me having this? This thing you stole? Presumably for an important reason?"

Dice shrugs. "I didn't steal that, the Thief of Hope did. Now, me, I don't tell people when I do crimes, usually. Except when I do."

"He clearly doesn't care either!" I feel my hand shaking. "If he did, he wouldn't have stuck it inside that _goddamn_ place-"

"Reminds me, how was security?" Dice picks the book back up and starts thumbing through it for no reason other than to thumb through it. "They didn't give you any trouble, right? I figured they wouldn't, since you're basically on their payroll right now, but-"

"Don't!" I snap, "change the subject." I breathe in deep, sigh. "It went..." Awfully. Catastrophically. Murderously. "Fine. Why don't you, or he, care about me getting these things back?"

"You're a smart boy, Saihara, I'm sure you can figure a question _that_ simple out." He sets the book on his chest, splayed out in the middle of a page. The spine's gonna bend... "Have you looked at it yet? You haven't, right? My favorite part is when they go _SPLAT._"

That... "What does _that_ mean?" I already know what it means. I don't know why I ask.

"You already know what it means, Saihara, don't you?" He grins at me, too big. Far, far too big. "It's all just a game, after all, isn't it?"

I'm physically trembling. I want to cross this table and punch him right in the face, right this second, and the only thing stopping me is the fact that I don't know what would happen to my copy of Les Misérables if I did.

His grin vanishes. "Just go look, Shuichi." He sounds tired, too, for once. I'll acquiesce to that.

I go to my office, sit down at my computer and turn it on, sticking the USB drive in. I'm acutely aware of Dice following me into the room and hefting himself onto the top of my cabinet to lounge like a shitty cat. He's a small man, the cabinet will be fine.

I open the USB. There are a lot of files on here... it's pretty big, storage-wise. I skim the folders and pick one out that's titled PAROLEES. Inside here are written papers for letting several prison inmates out on parole. I zero in on Ryoma's. Apparently it's been written but not filed? Is he even legally out of jail? I hope I'm not getting Kaede in trouble, any more than, uh, the obvious.

Next I check one named SUBJECTS. It lists off medical info for the parolees, their height and weight, any medical conditions, and in more than one case, lists them as deceased. In almost all of the cases, actually. Ryoma seems like the only exception.

I need to quit beating around the bush. I tap open the one labeled PROJECT. It's a few video files along with a notepad file that says "click me =)". Well, I know what I'm _not_ hitting. I click the first video file, and you can hear a bit of static and some distant voices, but otherwise a blank view of the bathroom.

"We're both gonna be here a while if you go at it like that, Saihara," Dice muses from on top of the cabinet. Fine, fine. I open click me =). It's a surprisingly detailed list of timestamps for each file. Some of them are marked with ** for essential and some are marked with // for nonessential, with some unlabeled, which I assume puts them in the middle? It also says they're listed chronologically, so I suppose it'll make the most sense if I start with the first one, marked essential.

Sixteen people - oh, that was the parolee count - are gathered together in the living room space. A few of them are sitting. Ryoma is standing there in the back.

"Good afternoon, subjects," comes a voice from an intercom somewhere, "and welcome to the testing phase of Project Danganronpa. We are very grateful for your volunteering to participate."

"Not like we had much choice," one of them spits. I sympathize.

"Now then, it is time for us to make clear the purpose of the test. We know all of you are eager for your parole papers to be filed so you can return to the world outside."

There are a few cheers at this.

"However, there is one critical portion of this experiment that we have kept hidden until now. To obtain your parolee status, you must first win this game we have set up."

My blood chills when they say 'game," and I don't quite know why. I glance up at Dice, whose face is glued to watching mine. He looks curious, almost. Like he's judging my reaction to this.

"The purpose of this game is simple. The last of you left alive is the winner. You may kill each other however you choose, whenever you choose. However, a strict curfew hour will be reinforced, which is punishable by death."

I mute my computer on impulse when the people start reacting. More than a few are yelling (judging by their faces), one is crying. Ryoma's just looking down at the floor. I unmute towards the end of a tirade.

"Lest you forget, you all volunteered for this, which clearly specified that information about the activities you would have to perform would be hidden until necessary."

A few start shouting. One leaves the room. Ryoma watches after them, but doesn't say anything.

"Oh, here we go," Dice says. I don't really appreciate his commentary.

The man who left comes back with a wrench. Clearly he just took the first thing that he could find and brought it back. He's panicked. Says he has kids he has to get back to. He swings and hits one of the ones on the couch... in the skull... they don't move after that. One of the ones by the front takes a fireplace poker, and the two stand off for a bit. A third one... ugh. They stab the wrench man with one of the ceremonial swords while he isn't looking. There's so much blood.

The remaining people all look at each other. After a long minute, the weapons drop to the floor. They slowly mill out of the living room, one by one. That's the end of this timestamp.

I move to the next one. It's in the study. Two of the inmates are talking about working together, potentially, trying to survive until they're the last two, then the best one wins. They almost certainly plan to betray each other. I sigh. This is beyond painful to watch. Is it nonessential? I skip ahead to the next middling one. There's an encounter where Ryoma fights a man, but breaks his arm instead of killing him. They don't have any first aid kits. He's going to have to take those heavy painkillers.

Next. There's a big fight. Three of them end up dead, and another two end up pretty badly wounded. One of the wounded ones is one of the two who agreed to work together. She bleeds out.

I'm tired.

This one is different from the rest so far. Curfew is declared, and all inmates are given five minutes to go to their rooms. Most comply. The one with his arm broken isn't. He shouts at the intercom that he needs medical attention, like that's going to work.

They open the vault doors after five minutes, and he heads that way.

He's shot on sight.

Some people in scrubs come through and start picking up the bodies and putting them on stretchers, wheeling them away. I skip ahead a bit. They're cleaning up. Fast forward to the morning. Everything is spotless again. Like seven people didn't die in here.

How much more of this is there?

A knifeman kills one, he lies in a pool of his own blood in the kitchen.

"Guess we're not eating today," is all one of them has to say.

One goes howling mad, wielding a pair of secateurs. He goes for Ryoma. Ryoma...

Yep. He kills him.

Night comes and makes it all clean. Another one dies the next day. They're getting further apart. People are waiting more, biding their time? There are only six of them remaining.

The next timestamp is a couple of days later. A fight breaks out, a big one, and two end up dead. The four left clearly don't trust each other, not anymore. They leave in uneasy silence.

Skip ahead a day. One ends up dead as they're heading for their room for curfew. The killer slips back into their room, and the others don't even know until the next morning.

I want to stop.

The same man tries to go for Ryoma with the same tactic the next night. Ryoma steals his knife, kills him, and that's the end of that.

Two.

I already know what happens. I don't want to watch. These are _real people!_

Nonessential. Skipped. Nonessential. Nonessential. Nonessential. The next essential timestamp is a week later.

The man breaks down in front of Ryoma, tells him he can't do this any more. Tells him he just wants it all to end, however it ends. Ryoma tells him he can sense his killing intent.

He pulls a knife. Ryoma's motions are barely perceptible, he's already gone, into the other room. I have to switch files to keep up. They're at the tennis court now, and Ryoma has a racket, and a metal tennis ball.

The other man is dead. Ryoma is free to go, they say. He sits down next to the metal tennis balls, in a way that looks like grief. He pockets a few for later.

I sigh. That was... that was horrible. I understand completely, now, why Ryoma feels the way he does.

"Don't you just love the way man delights in making the last moments of their fellow men as miserable as possible?" Dice grins at me from the cabinet. "But hey! Now you've finished the prologue."

"I'm, sorry?" I manage to choke out.

"Go back a few folders," he says. I... I comply.

I tap out of PROJECT and out of the folder above it, also named PROJECT. Not especially helpful.

...

There's a PROJECT 2. And a 3.

I don't want to open these. I really don't want to open these.

I open PROJECT 2. Sure enough, here are more parolee papers, Ryoma's among them, still unfiled. More subject medical information, still, everyone else is listed deceased. My throat feels like it's going to tear itself up. I swallow and force the feeling down.

I open PROJECT. There, again, is a list of timestamps, carefully curated. I'm only watching the essentials.

The subjects are different this time... well, of course. Except for Ryoma... he looks so tired. I don't blame him. He tries to get them to work together, tries to tell them that they can wait this out, that if no one kills, they'll lose interest in the project.

They take that for weakness. He has to kill half of them through the first week just in self-defense.

He starts taking the racket everywhere he goes. People leave him alone, then. But the killing doesn't stop.

A week or so later, they're down to just three people. Ryoma...

He takes matters into his own hands, then. He escapes again.

Everything in me is screaming out to stop, but I find myself opening PROJECT 3 anyways. There's no notepad file given here, and only two videos are saved. I check the first one.

It's the typical starting scenario. Sixteen subjects file into the room, Ryoma included. He keeps going after they gather in the living room, leaving the screen. I wait a minute or so for the announcement to start playing, and for the "game" to officially begin.

It doesn't even go that long before someone explodes into a bloody mess, a metal tennis ball passing right through his... ugh. I can't.

Tennis balls keep flying into the room, ricocheting wildly. I can't tell who's ducking for cover, who's injured, who's unconscious, and who's dead. Enough of them go in that, soon enough, it doesn't really matter anymore. The screaming mostly stops after a few minutes, and all of the balls stop moving not long after that. Ryoma walks back into the room and makes direct eye contact with the security camera, racket still in hand.

The video ends. My head finds its way to my desk.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" I say, in a tone even I can't place. I'm not familiar with it.

"Whatever you want!" Dice chuckles, he _chuckles_ after all of that, "it's not my place to tell you what to do with your own property, is it? Possession is nine tenths of the law, you know."

It's... mine? It's Kirumi's, isn't it? It's her boss's project, right?

It's... Kirumi's. And her boss's project. She knows what's on here. She's okay with this. She may even have been running this.

"Hey, I know what you could do with it! If you use the USB just right, you could probably choke someone to death with it."

Why? Why would she be okay with this? Kirumi always wanted what was best for everyone. She couldn't... she couldn't _condone_ this.

"Saihara, try it on me! I wanna be the first person to ever die by USB stick. We can put it on my tombstone! Pleeeeeeease?"

But if she does. If I take this to her and she just... she just takes it, and things go back to, this just starts again? I can't. I can't let that happen.

"I'm gonna open my mouth real wide, okay, aaaaaaaaaaaah..."

I close my eyes. "Shut. Up."

"Aw, I'm hurt, Saihara, we're never gonna hit third base-"

I shoot my head straight up and look him dead in the eye. He shuts up then. Fucking finally.

"If you want to be _useful,_ turn on the radio, get me a glass of water and heat up the leftovers in the tupperware in the fridge. In a new bowl, don't be an animal."

He pouts. "Now don't you think that's being just a bit unreasonable? I've been plenty useful."

I scoff, and turn my attention back to the USB. I have a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in. I can't afford to mess up. Not here, not now. This has to be perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content summary:  
Shuichi gets home, meets Dice, they talk a while, etc. etc. He gets to his computer, puts the USB in, and examines it. Within it are profiles and information for death row inmates including Ryoma, along with video files from the lower level of the government facility. These video files reveal that the death row inmates were forced to play a "game" to receive parole. The rules were simple: last one alive wins. Through a rigorous period of days, Ryoma eventually wins. Shuichi looks to Dice, only for Dice to point out that was just the first one. Shuichi watches the second one, where Ryoma is again forced to participate. He tried to work together with the inmates, only for them to take it as weakness and attack him. He wins again. In the third game, Ryoma leaves to grab his weapon of choice before the other inmates are told what's happening, and kills them before they can fight back. Shuichi is absolutely disgusted by these, and resolves to do something about it. End chapter.
> 
> So uh! that happened. Sorry Ryoma.
> 
> Shuichi Saihara's Fuckin' Pissed though and I'm real excited to see where that goes. And even more excited for a surprise waiting for you all next chapter.


	16. Chapter 15

You know... I really dunno what to think. He always was kind of impatient, but now... I dunno. Maybe he snapped! That might be fun, in its own way, but I don't know if it was the kind of fun I was looking for, not at all. Hmm.

I sit on the cupboard and watch Saihara work. Some rinky dink classical music plays through his radio. He drank all the water already and barely touched the food I went to all the trouble of heating up for him after his... polite request? I think about getting him some more water, but nah, he'll have to beg on his hands and knees for that. Or maybe he can just ask nicely. We'll see how I feel.

So I perch on the cupboard, hold my head over the edge, and watch. Saihara does a lot of boring scanning, some tapping and clicking. I wonder what's going through his head right now. I really wanna know. Is he mad? Is he sad? Some mixture? Does he feel anything, you think? Maybe he's one of those freaks who gets off on this kind of stuff... mm, probably not. I think I could tell. Well, that's a relief!

Eventually Saihara reaches into his desk and pulls a couple of things out. A phone, which, I don't know why he needs phone the second when he has a perfectly good one on him, but I welcome this tiny archaic flip son into our family. The other thing is another USB. I guess he just really likes his technology in twos.

"Hey, maybe you should get a second computer too? It might get lonely if you keep going like this." I tell him. Fuck I'm bored. "Ooh, or lovesick! So many computers die of a broken heart. Have you thought about a good match for it?"

He doesn't answer, or look my way, or really do anything to say that he even heard me, which is the most awful thing that has ever happened to me. My heart is breaking right now. Eh, he's probably just really upset, I guess. Sure sucks when that happens to people! Then they're really, really bad at being lied to, unless you pick the right lies, and those aren't usually the fun ones.

Oh, Saihara plugged the other USB in while I wasn't looking. He does something with that, then shovels some food into the ol' face hole. He doesn't stop looking at the screen, so it's probably downloading something. He gets up to go get some water for himself, which in my opinion is the perfect time to, as the French say, El Snoope.

I can't actually see Saihara's screen from this angle, so I have to drop down from the cabinet to see anything. It's not like getting back up is hard, this is just annoying. I take a look, and yep, it's downloading, I think it's downloading the Project files onto the new USB. I don't know what you're planning, you funky little man, but I'm real excited to see the results.

I glance down at the spaghetti and chance a bite. Eugh. Tastes like cold. Whoever reheated this sure did a bad job! I slip back onto the cabinet before Saihara gets back into the room. It's the perfect crime. I would know, because I commit a lot of them.

Perfect crime, noun, definition: a crime committed by moi (that's French for Ouma).

Boooooooooooored.

Ooh, maybe I can... shit, I already forgot what it was. So this is what we've come to. This is how Kokichi Ouma meets his end. It's been a good run. Well, no, it's been an extraordinarily shitty run. But I've been fantastic, so it evens out.

Goodbye, cruel world.

Oh never mind Saihara is back.

"Hey, wanna know some top thiefy secrets?" I entice, seductively. Saihara will be ensnared in pointless small talk in no time.

...Uuuunless he keeps at the computer and ignores me.

"Wanna know the Thief of Hope's next target? I can tell you everything." I hear a tone in my voice that I don't really like, which is weird, because I like all of my voice's tones. But not that one.

No response! Ugh ugh ugh uuuugh. What is he even doing?

He jerks the original USB out of the computer and sticks it in his pocket, and then he picks up the phone. Not my new son, Saihara's elder child, born out of wedlock, which I love only a little less. I'm really enjoying this phone lore, I'm going to make something out of this later when I'm not on the brink of death.

"Hello? Kirumi? This is Shuichi. I've retrieved the USB."

My heart sinks a bit. He's... really gonna give that back to her, huh. After all of this.

Oh well! That's A-okay! Fine. I put this at a 15% chance if he watched the video, but 15% chances are there because they happen 15 times out of 100. I just need to do this fourteen more times and any chance of failure should be flushed right out of the system.

He looks right at me. "No, I'm afraid I have not been able to apprehend the perpetrator, nor find any indication as to their location. I'll keep looking."

Uh, thanks? I'm flattered, but I have no idea why you're only betraying me halfway. Well, I guess I never really made my side clear, maybe Saihara thinks this is all because I'm madly in love with him and I'm trying to bring us closer together through the medium of theft investigation.

Psssh. That's, like, 20% at best. Maybe 30% on a good day.

"Yes, that time should be fine. I'll see you then."

I'm half tempted to yell something fun before Saihara hangs up, but I think he would actually beat the shit out of me after that. Well, try, he'd try. He'd fail, but nobody needs to see that. It'd be humiliating.

He... switches phones?

"Oh, you are a model father, Saihara," I smile warmly, "giving both of your sons equal attention."

He just gives me another shut up glare. Very good conversational partner today, that Saihara. Love that about him, the way he just, talks, and we engage with each other on equal footing, as partners. Or maybe more...? Oh, the intrigue.

"Hello? Yes, is this the office of Ms. Maizono? Yes, I'm sorry to call you at this hour."

Wait, what? Who is this? What's this about? Are you double dipping, Saihara? You scoundrel. You hound dog. You absolute beautiful madman. I love you.

"Yes, I'm here to deliver an anonymous tip about the fire at-" I don't pay attention after that there was a _FIRE?_ Where??

I pop open my phone. In retrospect this was an obvious fix for my boredom earlier, but I didn't want to miss anything Saihara did, like talk about _fires_ I guess. We'll make an arsonist out of you yet.

Huh, yeah, there sure was a fire at-

The blood drains from my face. What the fuck did Saihara _do,_ exactly.

"Yes, most likely this information will be covered up by the government, but I have some important data here correlating the site to inhuman acts perpetrated by the state."

Oh now we're getting into the fun part. So he really is reporting Tojo? Then... why report _to_ Tojo. You don't stud the horse you're sending to the glue factory, y'know.

"Alright, I'll send the information over to that email address immediately. Thank you for your time, Ms. Maizono." He hangs up.

Alright, now's my chance. I probably only get one shot at this. Let's make it count. "Okay, so real talk time for one second. Only real things now. What exactly are you doing here?"

He barely spares me a look. "Exposing Kirumi." He takes the phone he's holding, and drops it... _into the garbage!!_

That's _MY SON!!!_ Saihara, what have you done!?

Oh, duh, that's a burner phone. He wanted to leave that call anonymously. That probably would have been obvious if I wasn't rabid earlier.

"So, if you're exposing Tojo, uhh, why are you talking to her?"

He grabs the bag out of the trash, spins it up, and slings it over his shoulder as he stands up. "So I can confront her about this. I need answers."

Hey, okay, so time out. Time the fuck out. I've heard a lot of bad ideas in my day. I have heard many of them because I have said them, which is why I know a bad idea when I hear it. And that?

That is a real, real, real bad idea. That's like if awful idea and shitty idea had a kid and then abandoned that kid in an alley for a couple decades and it went to college as the Ultimate Bad Idea.

I know this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

"Cool!" I grin at him. "I love answers! Good luck not getting into a car crash, or something equally catastrophic and abominable."

"It's 5 A.M.," he looks at me tiredly. How long has it been since he slept? "The streets will be empty."

"Yep," I say, letting my lips pop out the p at the end, what a good sound, "but you never know. They say the most car crashes happen when you don't expect them to!"

He leaves the room without saying anything. Rude.

But more importantly, it is no longer fun time. It is now go time. Because Saihara is apparently a gigantic moron, and now I'm going to have to go save his ass so Tojo doesn't fucking murder him. He knows my trick, so I'm not gonna be able to follow him into the car, probably. Uber is a little bit too slow. My contacts are probably asleep.

I sigh and come to the grim reality that I am going to have to steal a car. This is the worst reality possible. I could get arrested for something I hate doing, like a pleb. Imagine doing 20 to life because you stole a _car._ Imagine wanting a car. Imagine not wanting people to drive you around while you luxuriate in the back seat.

Okay, Ouma, we're getting a little bit off track.

I drop down the cabinet, swipe a post-it and a pen, and write "I O U 1 car =(" on the note before putting the pen back. If I took a pen from Saihara, I doubt I would hear the end of it. He seems like the type to keep obsessive inventory of pens. I really hate how attractive that is.

I head outside, realize this isn't a residential area, and immediately cry, because I thought for sure I was gonna be able to plant this right in some dumbass's driveway and laugh. Now I have to plant it under somebody's car not knowing whether or not they even are going to see it and know it's for them!

Uhhh, I take a quick scan of the cars nearby. There's some pissbaby sports car, an SUV, which I know Saihara drives one but I have imprinted on him despite this character flaw, not because of it. Aha. A truck. Now this is capable of the kind of destruction I desire. I click my invisibuddy and get to work, because in a low-light setting like this it goes from being "almost invisible" to "practically invisible," which I think is an upgrade in quality we can all get behind.

The lock is easy. Hot wiring the car is easy. ...As I sit in it, I realize the hard part is gonna be driving it. My, uh.

My feet don't reach... the pedals. I look around for some kind of box or something useful I can use to, hit the pedals, maybe? No dice. Heh, dice. Well, this is bad.

I nick all of the napkins in the glove compartment to show them what happens when they mess with me by making their stupid car hard to steal, and then I take the pissbaby sports car instead. Before I drive off, I make sure to slap my IOU note where it belongs, right where the car used to be.

Perfect. Saihara almost definitely hasn't died while I was doing all of that. Time to go break more laws!

* * *

After a long, long, _looooong_ drive, like fifteen minutes, I get to the building where Tojo works. Saihara was right, though, those streets sure were empty. And hey, there's his car! So he's here, too!

So he's probably already meeting with Tojo. Uh... that's not good. I kiiinda don't remember where her office is. On the bright side, only one room has lights on right now! Second floor, six from the left. Maybe that's my lucky number! Ooh, I should get lottery tickets after this.

I exercise my running muscles real good, because if there's something you learn as a thief, it's the many ways in which you don't get caught. I blaze through the door, hop the rope bars, wave goodbye to the security guys who think it was just a stiff breeze, and get moving up some stairs. Taking them... two at a time... sure hurts... but it's fine. Saihara will fall all over himself with appreciation when he realizes the lengths I went to to save his dumb ass.

Up the stairs, to the... right, because I'm turned around, and then sixth door on my left. There we go! I listen real close by the door. Yep, that's Saihara's voice. If I'm not careful, this door is gonna make a noise when I open it... well it's probably just gonna make a noise when I open it altogether, that's the way life goes, but we can still make this as gentle as possible.

"I know what's in Project Danganronpa," Saihara says, clear as day. You know what never mind I should be in there right now let's go.

I quietly slide the door open, slip in with as little open door I can manage, and then ease it, gently, gently shut. I turn back around to look at the room. Thankfully, neither of them were facing the door, so I'm probably fine. Tojo looks about ready to murder Saihara! I am willing to bet he did not prepare for this, but I'm more than happy to hang back and see if he surprises me.

"I _told you_ not to open those files, Shuichi. That information is classified!" Her grip is squarely on the USB stick in front of her, which… Saihara returned to her, for some dumb reason. So she's like... five minutes away from killing him, probably. I can work with that.

"I don't care _what_ you call it!" Saihara slams his hand, open-palmed, onto the table. "It's inhuman! How can you or _anyone_ condone this?" We stan? We stan.

She shakes her head, like somehow she has something to justify this. Bitch. "You wouldn't understand, Shuichi, nor would any common person. This country has so many problems. People jump to make enemies of their common man, overpopulation is rampant-"

"And you think _killing people_ is the answer!?" He practically goes hoarse on that one. "You're so wrapped up in your big picture solutions for humanity that you've forgotten how to be human." Unf. Need me a freak like that.

Tojo stands up, puts the USB in a pocket. Ayep, she's about to try murder. "I'm afraid it seems that we will not see to eye, no matter how much we talk."

Saihara finally realizes the danger he's in, I think. "I already told the reporters before coming here, you know. And that USB doesn't have anything on it. I just wanted to see if you would feel any remorse for the consequences of your actions." Wait, _what?_ Saihara, you crafty devil, I didn't know you had it in you.

Tojo's eyes flutter _right_ open at that. Hoo hoo hooooo buddy, she's pissed. And there's the knife. "You'll die for that!" She shouts (this is a public building, honey) before lunging right at him. He'll probably be fine for stab one. It's always stab two you gotta worry about.

Yeah, there we go. He hops just away from the first thrust, and hoo boy, he's sweating now. His hand reaches for something in his pocket, and ooh, I get to see what weapon he had with him when we first met now! You packin' heat, detective?

...

I, uh. When I said heat, I was thinking, more, a gun. Not... Pepper spray. We'll, uh, we'll work on that.

Pepper spray, though? That's it? You're up against fucking Tojo and you brought pepper spray? Did you think she didn't know how to fight? Or that she wouldn't want to?

He aims his little can of spray, and awww, his hands are shaking, this is so cute I can't deal. He fires, and...

He. Oh my god, he missed completely. He didn't even get CLOSE to Tojo. I think she's as surprised as I am - like, she pulled back a bit anyways, but I think she was expecting some vague measure of combat competence.

Okay, this was fun to watch, but let's do like the Oumas do and step in and win this thing.

I dart in between the two of them, still so wonderfully invisble, and elbow Kirumi in the chest. Then from there you just twist the arm like that, and press, and boom. Knife is outta here. I love it so much when people can't puncture my flesh and get at my juicy insides.

"Dice!?" Saihara shouts. I could use him not recognizing me right now to make this even easier, but whatever, it's no fun if there's no challenge.

I kick the knife in Saihara's direction and grab a chair and just fucking deck her with it. She falls over, stunned, which should be enough for now. I grab Saihara's wrist and yank him towards the door. He yelps, which is a very funny noise I have not heard him make before and would like to hear more often. I throw the door open and get us goin'. I don't stop moving, but I do give Saihara the benefit of clacking my invisibuddy off for the time being so he doesn't run into me or something. That would be a little inconvenient.

"Why were you here?" He asks, like a moron.

"So you didn't die!" I manage as we start to tackle the stairs down. I take them two at a time again and almost take Saihara for a nice trip while I'm at it. Thankfully, it's not quite autumn yet, and he doesn't eat shit. I loosen my grip on his hand and drop the rest of the stairs, nervously tapping my foot while he takes them just a little bit too slow for my liking. I open the stair door so he can pass by me on the way down and out, since he's a slower runner than me anyways.

We pass through the metal detectors, which predictably start beeping and I don't care. I shout at the guards as we pass with a "hey there's a crazy lady trying to kill us maybe deal with that bye!"

Against all odds, Shuichi finally laughs. Have I heard him laugh before? If so, I don't remember. I like that. It's only a short, stilted one, since we're running for his life, so I'm going to have to try and get it out of him again later. We run out to the parking lot, run to Saihara's car, and both of us get in on opposite sides. He starts the ignition.

"Okay, so we're probably fine at this point," I manage to get out while panting, "but it would be totally cool if you got us the hell out of here, Saihara."

Saihara's stupid SUV revs into action. I don't have to tell him twice.

"What... what happens now?" Saihara asks while he drives. He sounds, looks, and probably feels scared out of his mind. Which means it's the perfect time for me to strike.

"Our second date, I think. I heard you like Chinese? My treat."

Saihara's whole face clenches. "Not now, Dice, I'm trying to-" his expression does a 180, "wait, when was our first date?"

Hook, line and sinker.

"When I invited you to the café, duh. Were the flowers not clue enough?"

His whole face goes _bright red._ I wouldn't trade this for the world. "You bugged those! That doesn't count!"

"Yeah, but I bug everything." I pout. "I just like to be included."

"Maybe people would include you more if you answered their questions. What happens now?"

That's so vague! "Be more specific."

"With Kirumi! What's she going to do to us? I," his voice trembles, "I thought I knew her, but I didn't think she would, be okay with this, and I, I, I didn't think she would try to k, k," his words come out in gasps.

Saihara pulls over jerkily into a parking lot for Dairy Queen. I fuckin' love Dairy Queen, but asking to go inside is probably not the best play right now.

"I almost died, I could have died, I should have died, I didn't die, it's okay, I'm fine, sorry, sorry sorry sorry," I'm not sure how anyone was supposed to follow that train of thought, but... oh, oh wait. This is a bona fide panic attack, huh. He gets those?

Can you get, like, sick notes from the doctor to get out of people trying to murder you, maybe?

We pass a few minutes in quiet. Me checking my phone, and him, uh, whatever he's doing. It's fine. He probably won't stay like this, just needs time, right? Right.

But... hm.

"For what it's worth... Kirumi probably isn't going to do anything. Her pride won't allow her to go outside of the government to do her dirty work, and it's not like they can act openly against you, especially not now that you've ratted their little secret club out."

Saihara nods but doesn't say anything. It's something.

I wait another minute or two to see if he starts moving the car on his own. Nothing.

...I wonder if you can spook someone out of an anxiety attack. Doesn't hurt to try, right?

"That being said, of course, if you need more security at your home, I also need a favor, and given I just saved your life, we could _probably_ trade for it. I've _kiiiinda_ been hotel hopping for the past month or two I've been in town and I'm running out of money a little bit so it'd be cool if I had a more permanent place to crash. And your place is way too big for two people! Really, you owe me this."

No part of that is true, but, you know what?

I don't think I mind if he believes it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise!!!! It's Ouma!!!!!! Don't get too super used to this, it'll be happening a little bit more now, but not SUPER often. Just enough for it to be a fun treat.
> 
> This dumb bitch is always on, 24/7, and i don't think anyone included an off switch, which I think everyone will come to regret with time.
> 
> Hey it's Mahiru! I needed somebody to be a journalist and she's the closest thing we have in the games so Hiiiiii Mahiru! Byyyyye Mahiru! You're not ever gonna get any voice lines but you've done your part.
> 
> As much as Ouma claims to know everything, there are a few things he's not quite on the uptake about. Like fires. It's always a good day in my book when Shuichi gets to surprise him with something.
> 
> Ouma doesn't own a car, which is a decision he will probably regret by the end of this storyline but he's too stubborn to admit when he's wrong so he lives with it.
> 
> shuichi: starts getting pissed and ranting about the value of human rights  
ouma: my pants are already off
> 
> Important insight from a friend:  
'I love how the difference between them is that shuichi's like "Oh, the light warping means I have to take it slowly to be less noticeable." while Kokichi's just like "IF I GO AT MACH 7 THEY'LL NEVER NO I WAS THERE"'


	17. Chapter 16

Everything turned out... well, I mean, it turned out.

Where to start? Kirumi is in prison and under internal investigation, after information came out about Project Danganronpa. She... took the fall completely, and the governor was more than happy to throw her under the bus, but I think the people's trust in him has completely disintegrated after that. I'd like to see him rot, too, but I'll settle for that for now.

Project Danganronpa, though. The whole town was abuzz about it afterwards, which kind of made me sick, but what can be done? I can't imagine how Ryoma felt. That being said, at least nobody will recognize him for that. For some strange reason, despite all of the footage that played - thankfully nothing too graphic - of the situation those parolees were in, no footage of Ryoma ever ended up getting shown, and his name was omitted from the list of participants. A lucky coincidence, I'd say, if I didn't know that that was the conditional for sharing my information.

Speaking of lucky coincidences, I ended up filing those parole papers for Ryoma, just went up and pointed out to a prison officer that we'd gotten these and they had probably been mistakenly sent instead of filed. He bought that, somehow, or just chose not to question it. I guess it helped that everything in them was completely above board. So now Ryoma is completely, legally, free from prison. Despite the fact that he and I both should probably be there.

For some reason, we never did come under scrutiny for the fire, neither of us. I'm not complaining, but I was sort of expecting something more to happen there. The most I ever got was a weird car theft case from right across the street that happened to lead me right to the building Kirumi worked.

Ryoma's living with Kaede full-time now. Ryoma's keeping her (relatively) on the straight and narrow and she's providing... emotional support? I think? She _is_ good at that. Oh, right, and money, she has so much money. They're looking into getting a three-bedroom apartment, I think. One for Ryoma, one for Kaede, and one for Kaede's piano. I dread having to help lug that thing up and down the stairs again.

As for... us...

Dice lugs yet another box of tacky knickknacks and useless objects up the stairs, smiling broadly at me as I watch. I told him he could stay in the spare bedroom, and he has also laid claim to my attic, for some reason. I never use it, so I don't really care, but it's the principle of the thing. At least he says he'll be paying rent.

He's been... unexpectedly alright so far, if nothing else. I don't feel as worried as I probably should, about having him around. Sure, he's probably the thief that I've been after twice now, but also... he _did_ save my life, back in Kirumi's office.

I sigh, sitting down as that memory comes back to me. She tried to kill me. She absolutely tried to kill me. And I still don't know whether or not I deserved that, not really. Kirumi... Kirumi's actions were indefensible, of course, but I... I covered up Ryoma's crimes. He had to kill people, in the game, of course, but those security guards? And their bodies were... unrecognizable, afterwards, I'm sure. They would have to be delivered to their families in that condition, if at all. Sure, they were complicit in the games, in a way, but also, they were just following orders, too.

I don't know what I'm supposed to feel. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Why is this all so complicated?

"Hey," Dice says as he wanders back down, "I didn't kill my brother and ascend to the head of my evil organization just so you could have another freaky outy thing. Quit that."

I realize, then, that my hand is embedded into my scalp, and I was probably pretty obvious about how I feel. I take a deep breath and let go.

"You didn't kill anybody," I say, "and if you have an evil organization why are you staying here?"

Dice scoffs. "For your protection, obviously. You know, I once killed a man with an overdue library book!" He puts his hand on his chin, looking up and away. "I never did pay that late fee, actually."

"That part I believe," I laugh a bit, and his attention turns to me real suddenly, with a smile I didn't expect. I decide to change the subject. "So what's next for you? I vaguely remember you offering me info about the next theft victim."

Dice wags his finger and makes a 'tsk-tsk-tsk' sound. "That was a one time offer, detective, and you passed it up while you were all in a mood. No more freebies for you! Well, except one." He fans his hands out over his chest. "Since we're living together buddies, I'll let you have three free guesses as to the true identity of one Dice, criminal mastermind and devilishly handsome to boot. I promise almost no lies this time! If you get me, you got me."

He twirls the hair of his wig, and I realize something. "You're really sick of wearing that thing, huh."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he says, looking away, all playfulness gone from his tone. Oh, he's _very_ sick of it. "This is just a customary ritual for all of my living arrangement partners. I should get your aunt next!"

"You should absolutely not do that," I scowl. She mostly keeps to herself these days, and I don't really want to have to force her to deal with this creature that wandered into my house and called it home.

"So make your guesses! What is my name? It's like Rumplestiltskin, except my name is way cooler than that."

"I don't have anything to go on, Dice," I tell him.

"Sure you do!" He crosses his arms. "We've met before, you know. I introduced myself to you then, too!" He starts sniffling, before going into a full-on bawl. "I can't believe you would forget about me, Saihara! Your good friend Rumplestiltskin!"

"Quit faking tears, no one is around to care," I say, trying to ignore the pit in my gut from hearing him sob. His face instantly clears up. "So we've met before?"

"Oh, yes, many times," Dice nods. "Were we friends? Enemies?" His grin gets far too broad on his face. "Lovers, perhaps?"

"I think I would remember that last one," I wave the thought away.

"You never know! Maybe all of your memories of our time together were spirited away, and now I am the chosen one destined to recapture them for everyone, but especially my truest love." He holds a hand to his chest like he's never been more proud of himself in his life.

This talk about lovers is starting to make me a little bit nervous, but I'm pretty sure nobody's ever asked me out, except that guy in high school who did it as a joke. But where would I have met _this_ man, let alone many times? I was never really in clubs, so unless he was a client of mine, or a classmate, maybe-

Wait. "You were a student at Hope's Peak, weren't you?" All of the crimes thus far have been perpetrated against fellow students. And if I've seen him before, and often, then most likely...

"Ding ding ding!" Dice grins before his expression blanks again. "That's the sound a bell makes. I'm neither confirming nor denying your ludicrous accusation that I was an Ultimate student, of all things. Psh. Me?"

...Yes, you. But there wasn't any Ultimate Thief or anything of the like in my class, I don't think, skimming over the names again. It wasn't a big class or anything. Who would-

"Kokichi!?" I gasp out in surprise. Kokichi fucking Ouma. Why didn't I realize?

Dice tears the wig off of his head and tosses it to the ground, stomping on it. He undoes his hair and shakes his head, letting his dark locks fly across his face. They compliment his face far better than any wig ever did.

"The one and only." Kokichi Ouma grins at me. "Ultimate Supreme Leader, at your service."

I'm... I don't know why I didn't realize who this was after all this time. We never talked all _that_ much, and it's been a couple of years since we graduated and all, but still. Kokichi has been allergic to the truth for as long as I've known him. It just... didn't occur to me that he would get into something like this, or... get an invisibility charm? How did any of this come to pass?

"You have questions?" He raps his fingers against his bottom lip, clearly excited. "I have so, so many more answers than you could ask questions for."

"And half of them are untrue," I sigh.

"Oh, you wound me!" He pantomimes being stabbed in the heart, briefly, hand over his head as he exaggerates his own death. He quickly returns to normal. "It's way more than half."

"Fine. I'll ask one thing. What caused you to get into work as someone's 'underling,' anyways? How could the Ultimate Supreme Leader submit to that?"

"There are worse things," he says, without any of the emotion I'm used to. It's like a cloud passed over, because just as quickly, it's gone, and he grins as he says "like hey, you know, one time there was this guy who wanted to put candle burns all over my body! You know that's a kink for some people. But I screamed and I screamed and I screamed and eventually he ran away and I was almost not burned at all!"

...What was that about, though?

"Oh, you believe me for once, eh, Saihara? Here, wanna see the scar?" Before I can respond he's already lifted up his sleeve. He points to a place where his skin is pink and gnarled, almost, but that's hardly the only place of interest. His skin is discolored or otherwise marked half a dozen places just on his upper and lower arm.

"Where did you get so many scars?" I ask, though as soon as I open my mouth I know what's coming my way.

"Oh, this one was from the king of cats, not such a bad guy once you get to know him," Kokichi points to a long one, "and _that_ one was from a subordinate of mine before I converted him to my side. We met often on the field of battle, but it was only when I put my blade to his throat that he finally saw the error of his ways. We're best buds now."

For not the first time today, I wonder if I'm ever truly going to get a straight answer out of Kokichi Ouma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ouma unmasked! At long, LONG last. I've been waiting for this.
> 
> This is a pretty short chapter, but a decent one, I think, for wrapping up Arc 2! We'll be starting up with a couple of extras when next I post.
> 
> Which may be a few days. I'm getting surgery today (just wisdom teeth, no worries), so I'm probably going to either take a temporary couple days' break from posting or post less often altogether in the wake of this, depending on how much writing I am able to get done afterwards. We'll see where I'm at.


	18. Extra 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi has a few important talks about what's happened.
> 
> (Shuichi & Kaede, Shuichi & Ryoma) (Ouma shows up very briefly)

Kaede knocks on my door.

I know it's Kaede because, for one, only a few people would knock on my door specifically on my off day, and two, only Kaede would pound the thing three times like she's about to make it come off (Kaito would just keep knocking on the door after three, see). And even then, only when she's mad.

She probably is mad.

I swallow my worries down before opening the door. There she is, in a casual outfit that she clearly hasn't put too much effort into. She hasn't put much effort into anything, really, I think she just woke up mad at me and stomped right over. That's not the best sign for this interaction, but I can't exactly run away from it. That will not help.

"Hi, Kaede," I say, "how are you doing?" My voice barely even trembles at all.

"Shuichi, hi, you're not busy, are you?" She relaxes just a little bit as she speaks, but I think that's more because she's confronting the actual me and not just an idea of me like she's probably been doing all morning.

"I'm not, but-" I'm about to suggest we go out before Kaede cuts me off and shoves her way into my home.

"Cool." She leaves the entryway and flops herself onto my couch in the other room. Not atypical Kaede behavior, but I'm still a bit nervous.

It's been a while since she's been that angry with me. Months, I think? I can't remember what caused it last time. The worst part of it is that she doesn't necessarily have to _do_ anything, and she knows it, she just has to make it obvious that she's mad and I crack like an overripe walnut. Do walnuts get overripe? Irrelevant.

I sit in a chair nearby Kaede, and we spend a minute or so in silence.

"So can I talk to you about something?" Kaede asks.

I swallow. "Sure, anything."

"It's been a week since you brought over Ryoma and Annette, and almost a week since," she gestures her head backwards, towards the staircase, "moved in. Now, I've known you for a long time, Shuichi. You're the kind of man who takes things slow. I can respect that. So."

She breathes in deep.

"Do you want to clue me into what, pray tell, the _fuck_ is going on? I think I deserve an explanation. Do you think I deserve an explanation?"

"Yes, Kaede, obviously," I start. I really should not have delayed this for a week. "It has just been a very busy week and I haven't had the chance to sit you down and explain everything."

"I got _some_ of it from Ryoma, that you did him some kind of favor and helped him out, but, it's obvious to both of us I think that he's in a real bad way, so of course I don't want to press him, but I can't help him if I don't know what's wrong with him. I don't know what I'm supposed to say. I got him a tennis racket and he couldn't even _look_ at the thing."

I grimace. Yeah, he... _God._ I didn't even think about that.

"Well you obviously know what _that_ is about, so care to clue a girl in?"

"Uh." How do you... tell your friend that the man you're living with killed twenty five people. I mean, I guess she already knows he's killed people, but...

"It can't be _that_ bad, right?" She sighs. "Look, I know I'm being a touch invasive, I get that, but I... I can't help him if he won't give me anything, and I _know_ you know everything, or at least enough."

I look up at the ceiling. "How much... did you hear about Project Danganronpa?"

"What, that thing on the news?" Kaede asks. "Ryoma obviously didn't like it, so not too much, but I looked up the basics. It's nasty. Kirumi was involved in all that, wasn't she?" She's silent for a moment as she puts the pieces together. "Wait, was that the thing you were investigating for her?"

"Uh, yeah, that's the thing Kirumi wanted me to get back from the Thief of Hope. The details of Project Danganronpa." I find my hand in my hair again, absentmindedly pulling it back away from my face.

"Did the thief leak all that to the public, then?" Kaede raises an eyebrow.

"Uh, no."

Kaede doesn't say anything for a second, then, vaguely, from my periphery, I see her eyes widen, and she gasps. "You!?"

I don't say anything.

"So you saw everything in there? God, Shuichi, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize, I..." she doesn't say anything for a while. "When... was that? When did you reveal all of that?"

"That night. After I brought Ryoma to your house."

Her voice drops lower than I usually hear it. "So he was with you when you found it, then."

"S...something like that, yeah," I don't really want to get into the particulars of that case, but it's close enough. "We were in the same place."

"Was he involved!?" She all but shouts.

I bring my face down, but I can't make eye contact.

"What the _hell..._" her voice barely makes it out of her throat. "They were. They were using... death row inmates, weren't they?"

All I can do is nod. She's silent, after that. I spend a few minutes just sitting there, watching her. She's taking it pretty hard, but then... so did I. I get up, go to the fridge, pull out one of Kokichi's sodas, the most inoffensive flavor I can find, and bring it back to Kaede. She opens the tab, throws it back, and immediately spits a swig of it all over me and the coffee table.

"What the _fuck_ is this?" She stares at the soda, twists it a bit to find the flavor, then looks back up at me. "Panta grape-_kiwi?_ Who mixed grape and kiwi?"

"It's the nicest thing in there," I say, shrugging. "Trust me."

To no one's surprise but my own, she does not trust me, and charges into the kitchen, soda in hand, while I go to get something to clean up my shirt and the table. Soda stains are the worst.

I start dabbing at the shirt to minimize the stain risk, and from the other room I hear "Durian? _Bacon? **SRIRACHA!?**_"

"Just smelling the sriracha one is a knockout," I say.

"NONE OF YOU HAVE ANY TASTE WHATSOEVER," the predictable shout comes from upstairs, "AND BACON PANTA IS FINE ART!"

"Why is he living here?" Kaede asks as I finish up cleaning the table. Once wet, once dry, once with cleaning spray, once dry.

"Uh, do you want to go out somewhere to eat?" I smile.

She frowns at me. "Always, but how is that relevant?"

"Well, if you want my honest answer, it's going to be somewhere he can't overhear us," I say, throwing my overshirt off.

"We could just go into your office or something? It's pretty soundproof." Kaede jerks a thumb back at that room.

...How to put this delicately. "I... don't like my chances of not getting overheard in there."

"YOU CAN JUST SAY I BUGGED THE HOUSE, SAIHARA, IT'S FINE," Kokichi shouts.

"He bugged the," Kaede echoes as she processes it, then turns to me. "Why did he-" her head swivels back towards the stairs, and she shouts, "WHY DID YOU BUG THE HOUSE!?"

"I'M CLINICALLY DEAF! I CAN ONLY HEAR THROUGH LITTLE METAL DEVICES SCATTERED THROUGH MY PLACE OF LIVING. HAVE SOME SYMPATHY, AKAMATSU!"

"Anyways," I shrug, "I have a place in mind, if you're interested. Just let me get a new outfit on and put this in the wash."

"I will not ever turn down lunch, Shuichi," Kaede says, and it's decided.

I throw on something a bit nicer and drive us out there. It's Italian, in case my desire to appease my best friend was not clear enough yet. We go through the semi-regular routine when we eat out; the waitress asks if we're a couple, Kaede hams it up while I go beet red, then she corrects them. She takes our orders and leaves us to our business.

"Alright, so, really though," Kaede pauses as she takes a drink of her soda, "what's the deal with him. I haven't heard you speak a _word_ about Kokichi Ouma since graduation, then overnight the two of you are _living together?_ It's a little weird, Shuichi, especially for you. Now, if it was Rantaro-"

"Shut _up!_" I protest, my face already flushing again. "It's not like that!"

"Oh, so you're not gay for Kokichi?" She asks.

If there was any hope of me not reddening, it's gone now. I think back to all of the romantic gestures he's already made, and I? Don't know? Is any of that even genuine?

"I don't... think so?" I manage.

Kaede nods, taking another drink of her soda. That thing is going to be gone before she even gets to her meal, though that's hardly unusual. "I was hoping you had better taste than that, but I wasn't sure. Rantaro could be an outlier."

"Quit bringing up Rantaro!"

"I'll quit bringing him up if you explain what's going on," she smiles.

"Well, I was _trying to-_"

"Quit trying, start doing," she replies easily, smiling.

"Well..." for all of my knowing what this was about, and all of my ruminating about it, I wasn't sure exactly what I would _say_ to her. Kaede shouldn't know that Kokichi is the thief who stole from her - or at least working for them, though I really do doubt that. And Kaede _definitely_ shouldn't know that Kirumi tried to kill me. She'll never be figuring that one out, if I can help it. But I can't be too vague, either. Kaede will see right through that.

"Kokichi did a favor for me a little while back, then not long after that he came to me again and told me he needed a place to live. He's paying rent, so I don't really mind it so much."

"Oh, he pays rent, so you're totally cool if he bugs your house?" Kaede splays her hands out.

"...Yes?" I raise an eyebrow. "It's a little weird, but it's not like I have anything to hide."

"Wh- you-" Kaede makes a face that's half confused, half angry. "You have a right to privacy in your own home! Don't you want nobody to be hearing you when you, well," she waves her hand like this should be obvious and I should be filling it in for her. I don't have the slightest idea what she's talking about.

"...Shower?" I take a guess.

"No! Well, sure, if that's what you don't want anyone to hear," she seems defeated. "Do you really not care if someone can hear you every hour of every day?"

I shrug my shoulders, taking a sip of my water. "I think he's just insecure."

"Bitch, me too!" Kaede throws a hand up. "That means sometimes, I come to people about my feelings, and occasionally I cry about them. That's what a _normal_ insecure person does. God, he must have done you a real big favor if you're willing to tolerate this."

I mean, I can't deny it was a pretty big favor, but also I don't see this as a particularly big issue, especially since he can turn invisible and spy on me himself whenever he chooses. ...Which is admittedly worse and definitely not what Kaede wants to hear.

"Aside from quirks like that, he's been doing just fine living with me. He doesn't bother me while I'm working and he keeps to himself, by and large." I was... surprised, admittedly, about that part.

I was expecting Kokichi to be in my face constantly, but in actuality he usually just bugs me a few times per day. He's figured out my schedule and free time and usually saves his menacing for when I'm not otherwise preoccupied. He does just come in and watch occasionally, though.

"Huh. Sounds better than when Kaito was living with you, at least."

I... suppose I can't deny that. I like Kaito. I don't like living with Kaito.

"So what did he do for you?" Kaede asks. "Is he, like, a snitch or something?"

...Well. "That's a bit reductive, but you have the idea."

Kaede raises her eyebrows. "Excuse me, did you just fucking say 'reductive' to me?"

"And what of it?" I smile despite myself.

"We're not in college, Shuichi, I don't need to study vocabulary, nobody needs to remember what the word 'reductive' means, and frankly I think we're all better off now."

"I think it's actually not that hard to remember what reductive means, as words go." My smile just gets bigger. "It's pretty derivative."

"I think your face is about to get derivative as soon as we get done he-" Kaede's expression does a 180, "oh, food's coming, food's coming."

Sure enough, there it is. Kaede is well and truly distracted, and my plan to use 'reductive' to distract her from pursuing what exactly Kokichi did for me worked without a hitch. We make small talk about the food, and she seems content to leave the matter alone.

"I can take you back home if you want, unless you wanted to hang out at my place," I offer.

Kaede shakes her head. "Nah, I just came over to chew you out. It saves me the Uber."

We finish up (I get my leftovers in a box, and Kaede's already finished her whole meal) and head back to Kaede's apartment. The drive home is mostly quiet and uneventful, with one exception.

"Hey, Shuichi," Kaede says, after being quiet for some time, "I want you to do me a favor."

"Mm?" I ask, not talking too much. I know these streets mostly by heart, but I still want to keep my eye on the road.

"If that fucker Kokichi ever does _anything_ to hurt you, I want you to come to me right away, yeah? We'll settle things nice and quick."

Uh... "That sounds like you're doing _me_ a favor, actually."

"No!" Kaede huffs. "It's a favor for me so I don't have to worry about you! If I know you'll come to me if you have a problem, then I don't gotta worry. Get it?"

Heh. She thinks I'm more likely to ask for help if it's me doing her a favor, huh? Well... I can't say she's wrong about that, exactly.

"I'll do my best," I say.

This Thief of Hope business has gotten really deep and it feels like we're only scratching the surface, but... Kaede _is_ my best friend. If I can't trust her, then who?

* * *

I admit I'm a little bit surprised when I walk into Kaede's apartment. ...If anything, it looks _better_ than it did last time I showed up. Things are more clean, the kitchen looks like it's seen the loving touch of a human being for once in its life, the fridge is stocked with actual food. It's everything I never thought would happen.

"You've done some good work around here, Ryoma," I say as I sit down on the couch.

He chuckles. "I didn't do much, really. Just helping out where I can."

"Well, you can do a lot of helping around here, at least," I shake my head.

Kaede scoffs loudly as she passes by to head to her study. "You can at least wait until I leave the room to talk shit, Shuichi."

"And miss your reaction?" I grin. She ignores me and closes the study door behind her. I relax a bit. "She'll be in there a while."

Ryoma nods. "She mentioned a piece she's been working on that she's close to finishing."

"Oh, nice, so we should be hearing about it in anywhere from a day to two weeks."

Ryoma laughs at that. "I take it you've been through this a lot."

"Yeah, a bit." I nod. "We've been friends a while."

Ryoma says nothing, just nods. We spend a little bit of time in silence. I feel like I should say something to him - that's why I stayed after dropping Kaede off, after all - but I have no idea _what_ to say. _'Hey, real sorry about the government making you kill two dozen people and all'_ doesn't feel like the ideal conversation starter.

Ryoma speaks first, breaking the silence. "...I noticed."

"Noticed what?" I ask.

"The info for Project Danganronpa got leaked... yet nothing in there, anywhere, mentioned me, did it? Weird coincidence, wouldn't you say?" His eyes are distant as they look up at me, but there's a sparkle in them, something I hadn't expected from Ryoma.

"...You're right," I admit, "that _is_ a weird coincidence."

"_Also_ a weird coincidence that Kaede didn't know anything about me coming, huh." He smirks, and I nearly spit my water. Swallowing hurts after that, but it's a better alternative.

"Well, that, I mean," I try and stammer out an explanation.

He just chuckles. "Don't worry about it. You've done a lot for me, Shuichi. I just wanted to thank you."

He offers me a candy cigarette, and I take one from him. He smiles a bit as he says "just don't forget to brush your teeth afterwards. You're a growing kid."

"L-like you have any room to talk!" I stammer. He laughs, but doesn't say much else. We spend an hour or so watching tennis on the TV before I figure it's best I get back home.

"Take care of yourself, Shuichi," Ryoma says, looking me over as I get up. "You're not involved in anything good, that much is obvious. It's probably not going to get better from here. But..." he sighs. "Even if justice is still too far away for me... I think I can still hope for the truth. A truth that will help people."

A truth that will help people... "you mean like the news with-"

"Something like that." He nods. "Go on then, get out of here. Make sure that Kokichi hasn't trashed your place."

"He's probably fine," I say, though now that he's said that, "...probably."

"Be seeing you," he offers a small wave at me. It gives me a bit of reassurance, even if it's such a little gesture. You can't be seeing people if you're not still around to see them, after all.

I wave back. "Be seeing you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! Sorry about the long break. My wisdom tooth recovery went just fine, but I had to deal with some other stuff that cropped up RIGHT when I was about to get surgery. I'm still dealing with it, actually, and it sucks, but! But. Nano is here and after I finish a short story I'm working on this is PROBABLY where my attention is going, so hey.
> 
> Kaede knows how to play Shuichi like a fiddle and I really appreciate that about her.
> 
> *does a sick kickflip* sup kaede your roomie killed two dozen people, that's like, more eggs than you could feed a family at a breakfast buffet
> 
> So... It is my firm belief that Ouma keeps weird assed soda flavors around just to try them because he's intrigued, and he drinks them completely because mama raised no quitter, and also to cultivate his reputation as a fucking weirdo, and also because occasionally he likes them. I genuinely think grape-kiwi is his favorite flavor, though, which is why it's there alongside the other ones.
> 
> Shuichi is at that level of close friendship with Kaede where he's not bothered by throwing his shirt off in front of her, which marks a radical difference from many of his friends. Shuichi is, how do you say, A Bitch
> 
> So yes Ouma absolutely bugged the house and yes Shuichi absolutely knows and I think at this point he's well beyond caring.
> 
> ...As much as Kaede can play Shuichi, it gladdens my heart that Shuichi can play Kaede, too, when he tries.
> 
> I love and appreciate Ryoma and he's taking a mental health break from the serious side of this fic, indefinitely, and I think that's extremely valid of him, all things considered.
> 
> I have two more extras stocked up, and then we'll be going back to plot. Expect the updates to probably be a bit more infrequent than they were before this break.


	19. Extra 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi helps Kokichi unpack.
> 
> (Shuichi & Kokichi)

When I step back into my house, I can't help but notice that Kokichi has somehow managed to attach himself to my coat rack.

"Hello?" I experiment.

"Saihara, hello!" He offers an exaggerated wave. "I'm here on important business!"

"Well, I'll just leave you to it, then," I smile as I step a bit past him.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, _wait!_" Kokichi flails. I'm a little afraid he's going to knock my coat rack over, but on the bright side, there's nothing on it right now. "The important business is with you! I am here to offer you an important, exclusive opportunity! This is once in a lifetime!"

"Get off my coat rack and I'll consider it," I say, not turning around. I hear a brief noise, glance behind me, and yep, he's effortlessly dismounted it.

"Would you like to become a champion of truth? A real hero, remembered now and forever? An honest to God saint in the eyes of all men who love justice and good things?" He keeps waxing poetic. He probably wants something stupid, or else he would have put more effort into it.

"Get to the point, Kokichi." I tell him, only turning a little. He gains power when he thinks he has my full attention.

"There's a bug in the attic and I need you to squash it." He pouts.

I laugh a little. ...Okay, I laugh a lot. "Really? Seriously? You need _me_ to squish it."

"It's _this_ big," he gestures out an impossibly big bug size, "_and_ it knows kung fu. Calling in backup in this case was entirely warranted. Even Oumas know when they've been bested."

"Alright," I say, still chuckling a bit, "let's go upstairs and see about this ninja insect of yours."

"It is _not_ a ninja, I could handle a ninja," he rambles from behind me as we walk. "It's one of Gokuhara's mercenaries, you know he has a whole legion? He's collaborating with Chabashira on an army that'll come for us all one day."

"Like Tenko could cooperate with him for that long," I point out.

"...Okay, you got me there," he admits, without any of his usual pomp.

I open the hatch into the attic and pull the stairs down in turn, and climb right up into the space. Kokichi follows behind.

I see Kokichi has done some redecorating. All of the old boxes and containers that were in here have been gingerly placed in the back corners, behind the entrance. He's replaced the old antique light fixture with a strong new one (when?) and has started putting his own boxes and furniture into the room. There's a big device on one of the sides of the room that I couldn't guess the purpose of, a record player of all things, and a blackboard with the message 'hello Saihara' and a drawing of him taking me into a dip mid-dance, for some reason. Just Kokichi things, I suppose, like the upside-down wax statue of Rantaro.

...Wait, the- the wax statue of-

I shake my head quickly and blink. No, it's still there, and it's still, tragically, a life-sized upside-down wax statue of Rantaro. I take a few steps forward, not processing it until my hand is cupping against his - its - face. I'm not fond of the texture. A few features of the face seem a bit off to me, and he doesn't wear his hair quite like that, but otherwise it's an essentially flawless recreation of Rantaro. It's wearing an outfit I've never seen him wear, what looks like his Sunday best, or maybe more like someone had given him clothes for a tea party and he'd been forced to comply (which I'm sure has happened to him before).

"Ah, fond of Amamini, are we?" Kokichi's voice comes from behind me. I turn to face him, and he's grinning at me.

"Hey, so, why the fuck do you have this?" The words fall out of my mouth.

He laughs a bit. "Amami and I dueled to the death once, and when I beat him I told him I had to take his body as the price. We came to this compromise. Amamini's a good listener! You tell him your problems and he just gives you that understanding look."

Understanding? I look back at the eyes. They're absolutely dead, fake as hell. I hate them.

"And don't you think you're forgetting something?" Kokichi snaps, anger obviously fake. I can tell because he's emoting. "That kung fu bug is gonna sneak up on you and murder you and then Kaito will never speak to you again because you'll be a weird, unfuckable ghost."

Unfuckable? That's what we're going with? "If you think I'm into Kaito like that, I have some bad news for you."

"Oh, no, Saihara, I know Kaito is straight as a board and you only have eyes for me." He pulls his chin over my shoulder, which is strange since it doesn't usually come up above that. He must be on his tip toes.

I cooly regard his smiling face. "I have some more, slightly different bad news for you."

He looks about ready to cry, eyes already moistening up. "Well don't give it to me _now!_ I'm already in a delicate emotional position, being within five feet of an insect."

Oh, right, that's still an issue, isn't it. Kokichi has a real talent for distracting me. "Where is it, exactly?"

Kokichi's lips form an o shape, and he takes his chin off me, looking swiftly around. "...Hmm..." He stalks between the boxes, eyes sharp on the lookout, before returning to me. "Can't find him!"

So this whole trip up here was pointless, then. Okay. "Let me know when you do, then."

"Wait, wait!" He rapidly shakes his head, waving his hands. "Don't go! I have a better idea. In exchange for the eventual murder of this insect, I, Kokichi Ouma, Ultimate Supreme Leader, will give you limited time access to my personal belongings while the two of us place them where they belong."

"So... in exchange for helping you kill a bug, I get to... help you move in." I stare at him blankly.

"No, you are getting, essentially, an interview with one of the most important people in this day and age! You understand I pull all of the strings in this world, of course," he says, wagging his finger. "Imagine how many people would kill to get a chance at seeing some of the things I own, and even getting the definitely true stories of how those objects entered my possession."

...Well... actually, I am a bit curious, now that he's put it that way. He has a bunch of weird things, just from a glance, and even if everything he tells me about this stuff is lies, it... actually might be an entertaining way to spend an afternoon. So I sit down in a chair and grab a box, and he does something similar with a box of his own.

"One thing, though," I say before we start. "I... I really can't deal with _this_ while we're doing this," I gesture at the wax statue of Rantaro.

"You gotta call him by name first!" He huffs dramatically. "His name is Amamini! Tell me what I need to do with Amamini."

"I need you to, just, take it down, turn it away, _something._" I insist.

"What's his name?" Kokichi narrows his eyes.

"A- Am... Amaaa..." I can't. I can't do it. i can't call this thing Amamini. I take a deep breath in and then back out. "Rantiny."

"_RanTINY!!!_" Kokichi practically screeches the word, hands reaching over his mouth in a gasping motion. He looks like he's never heard anything better or funnier in his life, which is extremely, genuinely upsetting to me. He pulls his silver brooch out from his outfit, sticks it right in Rantiny's flesh (in the middle of the _forehead??_) and clicks it on. The statue immediately disappears from view.

"Well... that works, but how are you going to find it later?" I ask.

He reaches his hands up to the sides of his face and makes a big, big smile. "_Grrroping,_" he lilts, fingers waggling.

I regret asking.

...Back on the boxes, why is the first thing I find a horse mask? It's made of rubber, it has a little crown on it, and its eyes are obnoxiously fake as it stares me down with its long, long face. I hold it up and catch Kokichi's attention.

"Oh!" he practically howls with giddy excitement, standing up immediately and plucking it from my hands. "I love this thing!" He pops it right on his head, laughing all the way.

"So what is this about?" I ask.

"It's a present from a friend," Kokichi's voice comes out strangely before he pulls the mask off and puts it on a table.

That engagement roughly describes our interactions over the next hour or so.

Some things that I find...

A brick, part of it covered in dried blood. ("Ah, Saihara, good find! That's a relic from the first time I killed someone! I kept it to remember. Oh, don't look at me like that, you're right. It's from the first time I passed out from blood loss! A reminder of my roots.")

A fully working surveillance drone, which Kokichi didn't say too much about. Makes sense, it seems like the sort of thing that you keep to use, not to be attached to.

A foam cat. ("Instrumental in my first heist. It's a gift from the king of cats, you know, and quite magical.")

Several blueprints for different devices. The conceptual design is clear from this, but the purpose often isn't clear. It's hidden behind some kind of cipher I can't quite decode. He laughed when he saw them and told me I was welcome to try and figure them out, but I don't have _that_ much interest in what appears to be a gun that shoots marshmallows.

An old knife, I suspect, mostly from the hilt. Anything more than an inch past that has rusted or broken off the knife itself. Kokichi doesn't do much but laugh at that one, and directs it over to a table with some other old-looking things.

A gold heart necklace with the biggest pink gem I've ever seen inside of it. It cannot be real, I decide as soon as I see it. I can't live in a reality where this is a real jewel. ("That one's blessed by the goddess of love herself! If you put it in a moving box and the man of your dreams picks it up, you're destined to stay together forever!") Alright, Kokichi, sure.

Some notebooks and scattered loose-leaf papers written in a second, _different_ cipher. _These_ ones Kokichi immediately takes off my hands just as soon as he sees them. I'll respect his privacy on this, I think.

I find my eyes wandering over to Kokichi from time to time while we work. His demeanor is completely different when he forgets someone else can see him. He's far less expressive, especially with his mouth. It barely moves. Most of the expressing - his _real_ expressing, I realize - comes from his eyebrows, his eyes, and just the tiniest bit from the rest of his face.

Kokichi's eyes widen a bit as he finds something in a box, his eyebrows upraise. They settle down a bit after he keeps looking at it, but they're still higher than normal. His eyes linger on the object for a while, clearly remembering something. His lips twitch just the slightest bit upwards for a moment, but no longer than a moment. He must be very fond of whatever it is he's holding. There's something in his expression, then, that I find more compelling about Kokichi Ouma than anything I've ever known him for in four years of school and all the time we've spent together since then. It's like a cracked window leading into the fortress he keeps under lock and key.

...Or maybe I'm thinking about it too much.

He catches me staring at him, and his eyes grow wide for a split second before he catches himself, before the mask comes back up and he's all smiles and nothing in the eyes. "See something you like, Saihara?" He grins real big and his eyebrows move to match, but his eyes are just a bit slow to follow.

Maybe I'm not thinking about it too much.

"Yes," I answer. I want to see what happens if I don't elaborate.

"Out with it, then," he says, and the twitch of his eyebrow makes me suspect the impatience he's expressing isn't fake at all.

"What are you holding?" I ask as a response. His gaze drops back down at it for a moment, and he holds it up so I can see.

It's a mask. Not a horse mask like the last one, but the kind you wear over the front of your face. A dramatized clownish face covers it, with huge red lips, a red button nose, one cross-slitted eye, and no eye whatsoever on the other side. Only the side with no eye has an eyebrow, big and orange, as well as a tear sliding down the invisible eye. The spot with no eye seems to be just the tiniest bit transparent, such that you might be able to see through it with difficulty.

"What's it for?"

He flips it back to face him, looks back down at it. The mask on his face is gone again, and it doesn't come back. He puts the mask in his hand back in his box. "Nothing," he says in an empty voice, and no word he's ever said has _hurt_ like that one did.

I frown. "Kokichi, do you-"

"Haha, did I fool you?" his smile comes back, too big. Uncomfortably big. His eyes are closed as he grins at me, wagging his finger. "Saihara should perhaps try being better at seeing through my lies. That one is a secret!"

...Is it, now?

Kokichi strolls over to the record player, sets a record on it, and gets it spinning. I wasn't aware that that thing worked. After a brief scratching sound, music starts to play out of the ancient machine. It's an upbeat jazzy piece with an immediate strong start that blasts me out of any other thoughts I had.

"I'm gonna live, 'till I die," Kokichi starts, singing to the tune, "I'm gonna laugh, 'stead of cry..."

He pops a black leather cap and a cane out of another box nearby the record player and starts dancing. I can't help but laugh.

"The blues I lay low, I'll make 'em stay low, they'll never trail over my head..." Kokichi elects to sing as loud as possible, forgoing harmonizing in favor of obnoxiousness. I can't say it doesn't suit him. "I'll be a devil 'till I'm an angel, but until then! _Hallelujah!_" He twirls his cane and tosses it in the air, and it lands on one of the rafters. With a jump, he pulls it back off and adjusts it in his hand.

How quickly he bounces back. How much of it is typical for him, and how much of it is me being here, I wonder?

While he keeps up his musical number, I go to grab another box. This one seems entirely devoted to the same thing, which is unusual for Kokichi but not unwelcome. There are a couple of different old-looking game consoles in here along with a few plastic containers, like the kind schoolkids keep pencils in, absolutely full of games. Everything here looks like stuff I'd recognize on other kids from my elementary or middle school days.

There are a few things that look like accessories hanging loosely in the box, along with a single game away from the rest that is so beaten up and worn that I can't even recognize what game it's supposed to be, except that the figure on the front seems to be wearing a big dress. It looks like it's taken a few collisions, as well as possibly been burned...? I'm not really sure what Kokichi has done to this thing. I scrounge through the container with the same kinds of games as that one, and find a second game like the first one, but in much better condition. I can only presume it's a replacement, and the first one is kept for sentimentality.

"What is Card Captor Sakura?" I ask, still looking at the games.

Kokichi, who's putting on a new record, _snaps_ his head in my direction, eyes wide in confusion before he smiles. "Saihara, I didn't know you liked shows for little girls!"

"It's in _your_ things," I protest, a bit more edge than I'd like on my voice.

He comes over, grabs the games, puts them back in the box, and hefts it into his hands. "I've been wondering where this went. Good catch, Saihara! I'll be right back." He takes the box and disappears downstairs. I guess that was meant for the other room.

...I take the opportunity to investigate the box he was sifting through again. The mask is still in there, essentially at the top of the thing, but there are a few other things in here, too, still not pulled out. A few photograph frames, which I'm immediately interested in, but my interest changes into confusion when I look at one. Everyone in the photograph, down to the last man, has their faces scribbled out with permanent marker. I figure he wouldn't keep the photo if he scribbled their faces out from dislike, so more likely this was done intentionally and lovingly, for... some purpose. They're all wearing outfits similar to what Kokichi wore back in college, and similar to what he wore when he was disguising himself as Dice. I wonder if this is his organization, or perhaps higher-ups in it.

The second photograph only has three or four people's faces scribbled out. The rest, I can safely assume, are irrelevant. Most of the people in the picture are wearing graduation gowns. It's labeled as a class graduation, but the school is, predictably, blanked with a marker. These must be friends of his, I suppose.

I hear Kokichi tromping up the stairs as I lay eyes on the last thing still in this box, and I pull it out just in time to show him, an expression of confusion and mild concern on my face.

It's a picture of Tsumugi's face with about two dozen tiny to moderate sized holes in it.

Kokichi is smiling when he comes in, but he smiles bigger when he sees the picture. "Oh, you found my favorite target!" When I raise my eyebrows at him, he explains, "see, she has that kinda round forehead? It's _perfect_ for dart throwing."

I... guess? I hand it to him, and he moves over to one side of the room to tape it up to the wall - again, I presume - only for him to let out a screech.

"Bug!" He shouts in a fury, his leg stomping down before I can even react. When he moves his foot, the poor thing is well and truly dead.

"Guess you didn't need my help after all," I comment.

Kokichi looks up at me, expression blank for a moment. "Oh, but Saihara, it was only your moral support that allowed me to vanquish this foe," he coos, staring at me with eyes half-lidded. He breaks eye contact to reach down and pick up the bug in his hand, turning away from me. I guess he must be throwing it away.

I bring my attention back to the box in front of me, but it's quickly broken when I hear a sickening _crunch_ from Kokichi's direction. I turn my head, and he's already chewing on... God. I have just enough time to give him a disgusted look before he swallows.

"Kokichi Ouma, what the _fuck_," I manage, barely able to look at him.

Kokichi tilts his head at me, face a mask of confusion. "It's just a little snack. I don't see what the problem is."

I raise my hand to try and start an argument about this, but I'm not even sure what to say. I settle for "don't... eat bugs. Please."

He giggles at me. "Whatever you say, Saihara."

I shake my head. Just as I'm about to turn away, he raises his hand up, the insect he squished still held in it, untouched.

"Anyways, I'm gonna go throw this away, if that's good with you."

...

I snatch the bug from his hands and start walking towards the stairs. "I'm leaving anyways."

"Aww, bye Saihara!" Kokichi shouts from behind me. "I'll miss you!"

I decide not to dignify that with a response. I'd like him to think I'm more annoyed with that than I actually am. It's more that I'm a bit Ouma'd out for the day.

Still, I feel like I've learned a little bit about Kokichi, somehow, through all of that, through all of the lies.

And... I really want to see that face again. The one he makes when he thinks no one is watching. The most natural face I've ever seen on Kokichi Ouma.

I'll see it again. Mark my words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Worth noting - my brain is definitely not in "continue writing this story" mode at the moment, BUT, I did have like... 3 extra chapters written that I just never posted so I may as well at least provide some of that content for y'all who are starving for the Goods. Not least because this is overall just one of my favorite bits I've written for this story as a whole. The domestic content. Kokichi being a motherfucker and Shuichi begrudgingly tolerating it but giving him shit for it.
> 
> the fact that Kokichi Ouma has a life-sized wax statue of Rantaro Amami staring him down while he sleeps for at LEAST half a week is the most important Kokichi Ouma fact to exist, in my humble opinion. I try and include it as often as I can.
> 
> What happened to DICE? A great question... which I'm not answering right now.
> 
> Kokichi is a closet nerd, and the closet isn't even fully closed, it's like, halfway open and he's just kinda lurking in there pretending you can't see him. I believe this is also part of the reason he grasped the virtual world mechanics before the majority of the other participants did at the time.
> 
> I should be clear since it won't come up again - Kokichi was ABSOLUTELY 100% bullshitting him about there being a bug in the room, he just wanted to give Shuichi the chance to see his stuff and/or mooch off him for packing help because he was bored.
> 
> I got one more extra waiting in the wings before we move on to arc 3. It's Kokichi POV. So that'll be fun.


	20. Extra 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi celebrates his birthday.
> 
> (Ouma-centric, Shuichi, Maki, Kaito, Ryoma, and Kaede are there)

Parties. I love parties! People get to act all stupid during them and nobody even so much as bats an eye, it's just 'oh, we were at a party and they did this,' like somehow being in a party turns all your brain cells off and everybody's cool with that. Which is cool with me! I'll take any excuse to act like an asshole and get away with it.

Unfortunately, this is lame-o Saihara's lame-o birthday party so I probably won't be allowed to do anything _too_ fun, especially since I live here now. Am I willing to trade that off for doing something _really_ fun?

...

Nah.

Saihara already went out last night and got food and drinks for the party - an array of things I know he would never eat _or_ drink himself, he's such a considerate host it makes me want to puke just a little bit. Live for yourself, man! You can do that!

The guests don't come in all at once. Akamatsu and Hoshi are first. Still kinda weird that they live together, I never woulda taken them to be the type to be ~living in sin~ oh god I can't even finish that thought it's too stupid.

"Hey Akamatsu, hey Hoshi. So... living in sin, huh?" I grin as I sprawl out on the couch. Nailed it.

Akamatsu narrows her eyes. "And you're any better?" She walks over to the couch, stands right in front of me with her butt in my face, and then starts sitting down.

I jolt upwards just in time to avoid getting a face full of Akamatsu ass. "What kinda weird shit are you into!?" I'm way too fucking gay for this.

"My fetish is there being enough sitting room for everyone who's coming over, and god I'm horny right now." Akamatsu monotones.

"Well let me just cuck you by sitting on the _other_ couch, then," I 'hmph' as I stand up off this one.

"Statistically speaking, that increases your odds of sitting next to Kaito or Maki by quite a lot," she grins.

I sit back down on the couch.

Just then, I spot Saihara walk into the room, taking in the two visitors. He starts to greet them, but I know an opportunity when I see one.

I jump up and catch Saihara in a big embrace, completely destroying any train of thought he may have had. "Happy birthday, Saihara! Congratulations on getting one foot closer to the grave," I coo, pulling back and taking hold of his hands, and guiding him to sit next to me on the other couch, opposite Akamatsu. I stick my tongue out at her, and she rolls her eyes. An acceptable response.

"Thanks?" Saihara says - though it's more of a question - from next to me on the couch. "You already said so today, but uh, thank you."

I take the opportunity to swing my legs up onto the arm of the couch and drop my head right into his lap, smooth as silk. He pointedly looks anywhere except at me.

"So, uh, hi there Kaede, hi Ryoma, thank you for coming," Saihara blushes a bit as he speaks. I can't tell if that's from me or them. Damn.

"Hi Shuichi, happy birthday," Kaede smiles. "So when were you gonna tell me about your new boyfriend?"

Saihara's entire face lights up _bright_ red then, and I grin as he steals a glance down at me. "Th-that's not what's-"

I know an opportunity to cause mischief when I see one. I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck, pulling him down a bit. "Shhshh, you don't need to say anything, sweetheart. I can handle this."

His face only deepens red, and my smile only grows. Oh, this'll be _fun._ I turn to face Akamatsu. "I can't believe he didn't tell you, but that's my Saihara for you! We've already picked out the names of our children, you know."

"We-we-_we did NOT!_" Shuichi shouts.

"Oh, so you object to that part but not the boyfriend part? Good, good. When are you up for meeting my family?" I bat my eyelashes at him.

"That's _not_ happening," he snaps, still completely red.

"You're right!" I smile. "I don't have any family."

Saihara's face softens immediately. "Oh, uh, sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"That's fine. It was a lie," I lie. "Harmless." Well, that much is true.

"Maybe you should stop tormenting the birthday boy for five minutes," Hoshi helpfully suggests, but judging by the slight edge to his tone and the look I feel burrowing into the back of my head, it's probably not a suggestion.

"_Fiiiiiine,_" I give in, sitting back up normally on the couch, "I'll save it for the afterparty," I wink at Saihara, blowing him a kiss. His face _immediately_ turns away from mine. It's absolutely unfair how flustered he gets.

Hoshi starts a discussion about something unimportant, and I 'help' where I can, but I'm a bit distracted from it. Akamatsu won't take her eyes off me. She hasn't said anything for a while now. Even when I make eye contact, to show I _know_ she's watching me, she won't stop. It's not the first time something like this has happened, but it's still a bit uncomfortable.

When she finally says "Kokichi, can we talk in the other room for a minute?" it's honestly a bit of a relief.

"Sure!" I chirp, surging up from the couch. "Just don't try to kill me. I know several methods of self-defense! I once killed a man with an overdue library book, you know."

Saihara laughs at that, probably because he remembers last time I told it. Mission status: sick as fuck.

"I'm not gonna _kill_ you!" Akamatsu crosses her arms, irritated. "What the hell." Oh well! It was worth it.

"You never know," I nod to myself, a solemn look on my face as I follow her into the other room, and then a room beyond that. Ah, we're in Saihara's office now. She shuts the door.

Well, let's lead this off with a bang. "I'm sorry to report I do not share your feelings, Akamatsu, as I am very gay, but I nevertheless appreciate your attention and believe we can remain friends."

"What? No!" Akamatsu's face contorts in disgust. "Ew. No. Absolutely not." She returns to giving that same stare she gave earlier. "Though that is... a bit related, I guess."

"Oh, really?" I grin. "Does this have to do with-"

"Do you have feelings for Shuichi?" She interrupts me.

Uh. Well. Hm.

"What? Me? Nah," I say, allowing my mask to 'drop' for that, before the smile comes back to my face. "He's just so much fun to tease! When I see that face, I can't help myself."

Akamatsu doesn't say anything, just stares at me silently. One, two, five seconds pass. Ten. I can't let my discomfort show on my face. No. Absolutely not.

"But that was a lie," I grin, "I'm actually madly in love with him, you know! But you see, I was cursed so that if I ever declare my true affections before he realizes them, I'll turn to stone. I've always wanted to decorate a garden, but not quite like _that_, you know? I was thinking in more of a domestic fantasy way."

Akamatsu still doesn't speak. This is starting to grate on me. I give her a second or two before I snap. "If you're not going to talk, this isn't much of a talk, so I guess I'm gonna-"

I get my hand on the doorknob when she interrupts me. "Wait." I turn my face back to her. She breathes in for a second before speaking. "I was going to tell you not to lead him on if you didn't have any feelings for him, but it's obvious I don't need to be worried about that."

I feel something drop from my chest into my stomach. "Oh, but maybe that was the lie," I smile just a bit too broadly as I turn back to face her. "I am a liar, so you never know."

Kaede cracks a smile. "Oh, I think I _do_ know, thanks." I feel very cold, all of a sudden. "He's a good man, but he's not experienced in things like this. So let me just make this abundantly clear." Her happy expression darkens immediately. "If you ever do _anything_ to hurt him, you'd better _pray_ I never find out about it. You got that?"

I can't say I'm feeling real threatened by the Ultimate Pianist at the moment, but I fake a swallow anyways and let my voice crack a little as I say "Yeah, I got that." It's better if I convince her I'm taking her seriously.

Her expression becomes light again. "Glad to hear it! Let's go back to the others."

I nod, wordlessly, and let her lead us back out to the living room. Ugh. How annoying. She's among the best of Saihara's friends, but that doesn't mean I'm obligated to _like_ this. She should keep her nose in her own business and ignore mine.

That said, I can't help but notice two things when we get back into the room.

One, Kaito and Harukawa are already in the room, so they must have come over at some point.

Two, while I was processing that, Akamatsu took the opportunity to sit down right next to Saihara. She sticks her tongue out at me, and I narrow my eyes.

You win this round, Akamatsu. You win this round.

"So! Harukawa. Kaito. How's the sex?" I ask as I go to sit down in the remaining empty seat, across from Ryoma. "I bet she makes your heart stop, huh, Kaito? She's real good at that, I hear."

"Do you want to die?" Harukawa snaps in a glare as Kaito shouts "Hey! That's none of your business!"

I click my tongue and wag my finger. "_Actually,_ Kaito, Harukawa has a point. As a supreme leader, both death _and_ sex are important in my domain. And I'm given to understand one of those is _also_ in-"

"_**Anyways!**_" Kaito shouts almost at the top of his lungs. Subtle. "Hey Shuichi, happy birthday! Maki Roll and I worked together to get you something!"

"I made sure it wasn't about space," Harukawa rolls her eyes.

Kaito pouts like the dumb nerd he is. "But everybody likes space..."

Saihara opens the wrapping paper and finds a novel set of some kind. Mystery, judging by the name. "Thank you," Saihara says, in a way that suggests he's happy they thought of him but doesn't particularly care one way or the other about the gift. Well, I didn't get _all_ of that from his tone, his face also tells that story for anyone who can read. Kaito seems proud of himself because he's a dumbass and Harukawa put all her points in murder and none of them in socialization so of course she doesn't know.

He spends some time opening the others' gifts. Akamatsu got him a new cookbook, which he's rather appreciative of. Specifically, it seems like it's keyed into low-cost recipes. Smart. Saihara's very frugal with his money. Hoshi disclaims that he didn't have the money to get anything fancy, which... makes sense. He just got out of prison, come on. He bought him a container of instant coffee, which gets a laugh out of Saihara. He seems appreciative, though. Everybody got a hit! Except Harukaito, but that was obvious.

"Hey, so don't _you_ have a present for Shuichi?" Kaito asks, looking my way.

I dramatically lean into the arm of the chair and yawn a bit before answering. "Of course I did! Even as we speak, I am gifting Saihara with my radiant visage. What more could he need?"

Kaito stands up at that, fists clenched. Well I guess I'm doing _something_ right. "Come on, quit messin' around! You're crashing at his place! Show a _little_ bit of respect, you..."

I put my hand on my heart in mock offense and prepare to dig myself deeper, but Saihara speaks before I can. "He already gave me a gift, before everyone came over."

"Aww, you ruined it," I pout as Kaito's head spins to meet Saihara, "I was gonna see if I could get Kaito to punch me before I said anything."

"I'd rather you didn't." Saihara looks exasperated. I guess I won't push my luck, since it _is_ his birthday. Consider that another gift, Saihara! 

"So I have a question, Kokichi," Hoshi speaks up, which surprises me enough that I'm almost disposed to tell the truth on this one.

I perk up, sitting up straight in my chair. For once. "Ask away!"

"Why is it that you call everyone by their last names... except Kaito, of all people?"

Alright, never mind what I said, I am _definitely_ disposed to tell the truth on this one. "Oh, _that!_ That's real simple. Calling people by their last names is something I do as a sign of respect. As a supreme leader of evil, after all, my adversaries include anyone who hasn't bent their knee! So you are all my crafty opponents."

Hoshi smiles, and Harukawa lets out a little laugh, which is still way more laugh than I expected from her. Akamatsu rolls her eyes, and Saihara stares at Kaito expectantly.

I'll give it three. One... two...

"Hey!" Kaito shouts. "Are you sayin' I serve you? Because absolutely not!"

Oh, no, this is worse than I expected. ...Oh, yes.

"Yep, that's exactly it, my dear Kaito!" I grin my _ass_ off. "Don't forget our meeting at 10! You've got the chicken, right?"

"What!? No!" Kaito doesn't stop. Oh, god, this man was just born the perfect combination of stupid and angry. I have too much power.

Saihara interrupts this beautiful moment by having the audacity to let his phone ring. "Oh, I should take this," he says, hitting a button as he walks into the other room. I can still hear him greet the phone with a "Rantaro, hey!" as he exits.

And then we're left with silence. I smile again at Kaito.

Akamatsu sighs. "He's saying you're not an opponent he respects."

"What!?" Kaito snaps.

"He's calling you an idiot," Harukawa dumbs it down even more for him.

"_Hey!_" Kaito stands up now. He probably wants to start shit. ...Mmm... do I wanna engage him? I mean, yes, obviously, egging on Kaito is my favorite part of any day, but is it worth the consequences?

Well...

...

"Hey, Kaito," I say, standing up myself. "Guess what?"

"...What?" Kaito asks, still angry and clearly suspicious, but at least humoring me.

...Shuichi probably wouldn't want me at his party anyways.

"Vibe check!" I grin, and give him precisely one second of confusion before I slug him in the stomach and run for it.

I'm already at the door by the time I hear Kaito shout "Get back here!" from the other room, and that is, to be frank, _beyond_ too slow to catch me. I slam the door shut in my wake and get to climbing up the building. Thankfully, Saihara's place is nice and easy to climb, between the big windows and the wall surface, and I get onto the roof with ease. I lay down there and tune into my earpiece to hear what's going on below deck.

"Just let him go. He's not worth it." Akamatsu's voice comes from the other end.

"Absolutely not!" Kaito calls out, and I hear the door open without needing the bug for it. Good luck finding me, space case.

"Boys," Akamatsu sighs.

They're mostly quiet as Kaito moves around the house, trying to find where I might be hiding. Or at least that's what I assume he's doing. I hear a car door open. It's a little bit insulting to my intelligence. After a while, he gives up on the endeavor and heads back inside.

"Nothing, huh?" Hoshi asks.

"Yeah, nothing," Kaito huffs, and I can practically see him rubbing the back of his neck.

"You know he only keeps egging you on because you let him get under your skin, right?" Hoshi's right, of course, but I wouldn't agree even if I was in the room.

"A man's gotta defend his name!"

A pause. "Yeah, I guess I wouldn't know anything about that."

"Hard to believe Shuichi lets that little rat stay here." Kaito says.

"He'd better not be threatening him, or.." Harukawa trails off.

"Threatening him? Would he?"

A smile finds its way onto my lips. It's not mine.

"Why wouldn't he!? He's always just done whatever he wanted, no care for who he hurts."

"Kaito, don't you think that's going a bit far?"

"...If Kokichi went too far, and did something like that, would Shuichi stop him?"

"...Well..."

I have better things to do than listen to this. I crawl across the roof to the far side and drop to the window of my room, which I left cracked open anticipating something like this. It's easy to slide in, lock it behind me, and leave them behind. I have... work I should be working on, I'm sure. I always do.

That smile doesn't leave my face for a long time.

Someone knocks on my door. It's... dark now, I realize.

I don't answer.

"They're gone," Saihara's voice comes from the other side of the door. I pause a moment to turn on my earpiece and find that does seem to be the case. I... guess I can answer the door, then.

Saihara looks tired, but he still offers me a small smile. "You know, if you were tired of socializing, you could have just excused yourself. That would have been fine."

Oh, is that why he thinks I left? I shrug. It's a much nicer thing for him to think than the truth, I suppose.

"I saved you come cake," he says, bringing a small plate with a slice into view. Is that marbled? Oh, that's mine. That's mine right now.

"And thank you again for the knife," he adds. "It came in handy for the champagne bottle."

"Iff noffin," I comment, my mouth full of cake. I swallow. "It's a practical thing. An army knife comes in handy in a lot of situations. Anything from self defense to opening Panta cans, eh? Ehhh?"

"Both things I've needed more often since you've shown up on my doorstep, yes," Saihara snorts. 

He doesn't say anything else, I don't have anything to respond to, so he just stands in the doorway looking like he has something to ask me while I finish eating this cake slice he brought me. It's not the best cake I've had in my life, but it's chocolate and sugar, so I'm hard-pressed to really pass it up. I finish it off and pass the plate back to him with my thanks. He nods in response, but still stands there, like he's trying to find the words.

"Overwhelmed by my beauty?" I suggest. "Wouldn't be the first time."

He shakes his head, which is a more serious response than I was expecting, probably because he has a serious question. He finally clears his throat, though, and asks. "Why did you..."

He flicks his eyes down at me. I raise an eyebrow. Finally, he shakes his head. "Never mind. Have a good night, Kokichi."

Well, now, that's just aggravating. I close the door behind him and flop out on my bed. What was his question?

Why did I hit Kaito? _Because I knew I was being an asshole and you didn't want me there, so might as well lean into it, right?_

Why did I come to the party, if I wasn't going to stay? _Because I wanted to see you with your friends and pretend I could belong there too._

Why did I move in here in the first place, maybe?

I sigh and turn over in bed.

_Because I like you, you fucking fool._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still haven't written for this bad boy in a hot minute but I don't mind slappin down some of my remaining buffer so enjoy
> 
> Akamatsu's got a sense for these things. I'm proud of her. She can threaten with the pros. Even if Kokichi's a douchebag who has an unfair advantage by being a superthief or something.
> 
> Worth noting: Kaito DOES in fact know what Maki does for a living in this universe. Nobody else does. Except Kokichi, obviously. If he actually cared about people knowing, he would tell them when maki and kaito were not in the room, but he's just doing this to be a douchebag.
> 
> i did a weird thing with last names in this universe?? i dont know where this is set besides Some Ambiguous Location but obviously it's not japan i didn't go full weeb here. Ouma is just Like That.
> 
> oops sorry i spilled out my angst all over this dumb motherfucker guess hes gonna have to cope


	21. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi gets two new cases.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw for major character death, blood, after-the-fact descriptions of violence. If you got through the Ryoma content you'll get through this no problem though.

Everything in me runs a bit on autopilot.

After I get off the phone, I find myself moving upstairs to give Kokichi the news. I knock on his door, I shout for him, I even check the attic, but nothing. It's strange; I could have sworn he was in today. I'll just have to tell him later.

I take a few minutes to grab some water and a snack, and spend a few more convincing myself I'm not going to drive up to the crime scene. I'm wrong, as usual, but I can hardly bring myself to task for this one.

It's not every day you get the call that a classmate has died.

* * *

I drive up to Angie's house. It's a bigger place than I was expecting, but it still has that quaint sort of feeling, hearkening to her roots... the kind of thing you'd associate with Angie.

I still can't believe she's dead.

There's caution tape barring the entrances, and one or two police cars around, along with an unmarked black car. I guess Angie's pretty high profile, but I'm not sure what merited all of this.

I see a woman standing outside the scene talking with one of the police officers. She's not in a uniform like the other ones, wearing some sort of purple outfit with buttons. There's something about her that seems vaguely familiar, but I can't quite place it.

Her attention turns to me as I walk up, and she waves the other police officer away. "Detective Saihara. I've been expecting you."

I raise my eyebrow. I hadn't told anyone I was coming. She pulls something out of a pocket, a badge and card. "Kyoko Kirigiri, Interpol. Ultimate Detective." Sure enough, that's similar to the card I got when I graduated from Hope's Peak. "When I found out the victim was an Ultimate, I looked into her graduating class and school connections to make sure there wouldn't be any..." she looks away, "problems."

I can't help but laugh a little bit at that; a tiny, pained thing. This is a bit embarrassing. "So you found out about me then?"

Kyoko nods. "Speaking of which, do I have anything to worry about from a Kokichi Ouma? Even reading everything I could find on him, I still can't decide."

Uh. "Well..."

...Well.

"...Probably not?" I give her an awkward smile, but Kyoko simply nods again.

"Alright then. With that settled, I'll give you the chance to view the crime scene under my supervision. I'm sure you understand the conflict of interest, so we can't exactly put you on the case with us, but I don't mind giving you the chance to look it over, see what you can find to help us with." She pauses for a moment. "I know what I would need in a situation like this."

All I can do is nod and breathe a word of thanks. If she sees me broken up, she doesn't say anything. This _is_ what I need. Angie died here. I wasn't there to protect her. If nothing else, I can at least do my part to make sure she finds justice now.

Kyoko escorts me past the caution tape and into the building. Angie's house is loud on the inside, lots of bright colors on the walls and plenty of art and sculptures. It looks like Angie painted the walls herself, to better accentuate the pieces she put on them. That... hardly surprises me, actually. It sounds like her. A pained smile finds my lips as we pass through the entryway into a hallway, and then round another corner.

My breath hitches in my throat.

This room was obviously for praying to her god. The space is dedicated to a large statue to him. There are plenty of candles around, too, as well as smaller statues flanking the other walls, and a few pieces of art hanging here and there. That's fine. That's all... fine. That's normal. It's a normal room.

Leaving aside, of course, all of the blood on the walls. There's a bit of inconsistent spatter scattered along the far wall, and a solid line of blood sitting under... letters, painted in blood. A word.

** _FRAUD_ **

"Explain?" I manage to croak out.

Kyoko nods. I feel like she must prefer nonverbal communication. It makes sense for her, she seems like the sort to prefer analyzing to talking. It's a little bit unfortunate that I'm making her talk now, but if she doesn't get her words out before I run out of things to examine on her person, I'm going to _lose it._

"The culprit came in sometime late last night, around 10 to 11 PM. We suspect Miss Yonaga was at prayer, and didn't notice the perpetrator coming up behind her. It's at this point they overpowered Miss Yonaga and killed her. Cause of death was a severed carotid artery. She likely didn't feel much pain." She glances to me quickly, and I realize that's for my benefit. "After that, the killer moved miss Yonaga's corpse and used her finger to paint this message. There's no fingerprints on her body, so we believe they wore gloves. No sign of the murder weapon, so they likely took it with them. Of course, they're no stranger to this sort of thing."

"Hm?" I encourage Kyoko to go on.

"This has been my case for a few months now," Kyoko sighs. "We believe that the same person who did this is also responsible for a string of killings. Targets are always young women, from their early teens to late 20s. The culprit deviates from several common tendencies of serial killers. They don't stay in one place. I've tracked them through several cities across the country, and a few other countries to boot. They stay under assumed names and rarely target the same location again once they've left. Just when I'm getting close, they leave again to a new place to start over again." Kyoko bites her lip. She must be working very hard on this.

"Anything else?" I ask, hoping to direct her to something more useful.

"Oh, yes," she turns her attention back to me. "The killer also never uses the same method twice. The only consistent theme is that the killings are all connected to the occult. Rather, let me correct myself. They all maintain a consistent occult theme. I don't believe that any of these killings are _actually_ a matter of the occult."

"You sound confident."

Kyoko puts a gloved hand up to her chin. "Cults are fixated in a different way to serial killers, and our perpetrator is opportunistic in a way that cults rarely are. And it would be much more difficult to hide a consistent group of many people traveling from country to country. Plus the killings aren't consistent with their themes. They maintain an occult atmosphere, but they often stray from region to region. It all feels like a smokescreen to throw us off the trail and deter investigation."

"So what's occult about this?" I ask, forcing myself to look back up at the message in blood, in Angie's blood. (...Angie's blood? But...) It's not as bad, now that the initial shock has worn off, though I'm not fond of that fact. "It's a little disturbing, but it's not exactly spooky."

Kyoko is silent for a moment. "Come by the police station later, tell them Kyoko sent you. There's something you should see that's relevant to the case."

I don't like the sound of that, but I nod nevertheless.

"So, any other insights, Saihara?" Kyoko asks me.

"Well... the main thing in this room, the message. There's something wrong with it," I point out. "There's too much blood."

"Too much?" Something glimmers in Kyoko's eye. She seems excited.

"If Angie just had her throat cut," I explain, gesturing at the place where... well, her body would have been, "there would be a lot of blood, but there's too much blood even for that. The letters are much too large to have come from that spray. I can only assume the killer brought in more blood."

"Yes, good insight," Kyoko nods. "I've been thinking something about the message seemed inconsistent. I'll have to get the labs to examine the blood and see what we can get back. Anything else?"

"The culprit managing to get in and get to Angie without arousing suspicion suggests either a degree of familiarity or careful study of their target."

Kyoko nods again. "Yes. Considering their latest previous kill was only a few days ago and in another country, I believe that they were already familiar with their victim. A number of the cases up to now have implied some sort of familiarity, so that wouldn't be unusual."

"Only a day or two, though?" I raise an eyebrow. "That's so little time to plan for a new killing."

"It wouldn't be the first time, but even so, this feels like a rush job," Kyoko frowns. "I hope they're getting sloppy."

I look around the room, trying to see if I can think of any other insight to offer. I'm distracted, though, by the sound of a door opening from one of the other rooms.

"Was anyone else supposed to be coming in?" I ask. Kyoko shakes her head. The two of us independently start sprinting back towards the entrance, but no one is there. Kyoko opens the front door and looks around, calling an officer over. I check one of the open doorways, leading into a guest bedroom of some kind. It's a small, quiet space, decorated with purples and oranges like a sunset. I don't see anything.

But. Sight doesn't mean everything, does it? I close my eyes for a moment, and just take in the sounds nearby.

Kyoko's talking to one of the officers, and I can hear her, indistinctly. The officer she's talking to is a man, and his voice carries stronger from the distance than hers does. I put both of them aside. Without that, it's quiet.

Aside from the muffled sound of someone else in the room finally taking a breath after holding it in for too long.

"Dice?" I whisper, switching back to his code name. "You're in here, right?"

I wait a moment, two moments. No response.

"I know you're there," I whisper, a bit more forceful. Nothing, again.

Then I see the window open.

"Hey!" I let out in a hiss.

The bushes outside shake a bit, and I hear a whispered "fuck" from Kokichi. I sigh. I guess we're going to have to talk about _that_ one later.

"Did you find anything?" Kyoko asks as I shut the window. I shake my head.

"No, I thought I saw something when these bushes rattled, but it must have just been the wind," I give a twisted mess of half-truths.

"Don't dismiss yourself so quickly," Kykoko huffs. "Let's check the backyard. I'll have the officers look around again inside."

I nod, not wanting to make any more trouble than I already have. I don't particularly _want_ to waste my time when Kokichi has long since left the area, but if I say no now it's probably just going to seem like another putdown. So the two of us waste another fifteen minutes looking through the backyard, while the police officers waste time inside looking for my annoying troublemaker of a roommate.

"Well, if someone _was_ here, they're likely long gone by now." Kyoko says, standing up from a bush.

I nod in agreement as I dust my pants legs off. "Most likely."

Kyoko sighs. "Not much else for it, then."

I'm about to respond when my cell phone starts ringing. I excuse myself and answer it.

"Hello?" I say into the receiver.

"Shuichi, hello, it's been a long time," a voice I haven't heard in a while greets me on the other end. Quiet, sophisticated, a bit halting.

I know who this is. "Korekiyo?"

"The very same." The anthropologist answers. "I'm afraid I've little time for pleasantries at the moment. I'm calling about a matter essential to my studies. A priceless artifact has disappeared from my care, and I'm told you have some experience in these matters."

Another job? "Well, I'm happy to help, Korekiyo, but I'm in the middle of something at the moment."

"I sympathize, however, I need the object in question to be recovered very quickly," Korekiyo explains. "It is very difficult to transport without specialized care, and I trust no one other than myself to handle it. I have a flight scheduled in a week."

That's... a serious rush job. "You may want to consult another agency, then, there are a few I can recommend you to if you want?"

I hear a small laugh from the other end. "I appreciate it, but I doubt they have the experience with this criminal that you do."

I feel a shiver down my spine as the pieces fall into place. "This criminal?" I echo.

"Of course. You _were_ responsible for resolving the first Thief of Hope incident, were you not?"

...Kokichi Ouma, what on _Earth_ are you planning this time?

"I... was, yeah. Text me your current address. I'll be over as soon as I can."

"Work calling?" Kyoko asks as I hang up the phone. I nod, a pained smile on my face. 

"Well, don't let me keep you, then," Kyoko shakes her head at me. "I promise, we'll do everything we can to find the person responsible for this."

"Thank you," I tell her, heading back out of the backyard and back into my car. As I start the ignition, I only find myself wishing that was enough for me to believe they really would get caught this time.

Somehow, I feel like this case is just getting started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEWWO FWIENDS.... I still haven't written anything for this but I have backlog, so y'know what, fuck it. Have some crumbs.
> 
> Sorry, Angie, it really be like that sometimes. (Sidenote, having reread this shit: jesus christ i just? USED atua like that?? im filled with shame.)
> 
> IT'S KYOKO!!! HI KYOKO!!!! She's one of my favorites from THH I care for her so fucking much. She's grown on me more the longer I've been in the fandom and now I am filled to bursting with love for her.
> 
> [investigation asmr sounds] it's a good thing I'm decent at writing this because there's just So Much of it. Who knew that writing investigation work meant actually writing out threads and putting them together? God, imagine doing THAT shit,
> 
> this is one of my all time favorite scenes, just. there's something SO fucking funny to me about shuichi spotting ouma and then ouma steadfastly refuses to acknowledge it RIGHT up until he falls into a thorn bush.
> 
> Yeah it's Chapter 3 time. Whenever I get around to posting more. ...Which might be a while. I don't have the finale to this segment written out yet and I'm very nervous about that, even though I already KNOW what's gonna happen. We'll get there when we get there.
> 
> Anyways enjoy your food for now. If nothing else I promise you WILL have MORE CONTENT at some point. I HAVE the content. I just have to post it.


End file.
